1 


UC-NRLF 


*B    3D1    til 


SBtoerjsftie  CDucational  jttottostap^ 

EDITED  BY  HENRY  SUZZALLO 

PROFESSOR   OF  THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   EDUCATION 
TEACHERS   COLLEGE,    COLUMBIA   UNIVERSITY 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 


DAVID   SNEDDEN,  Ph.D. 

COMMISSIONER   OF  EDUCATION  FOR  MASSACHUSETTS 


HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN   COMPANY 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK  AND  CHICAGO 

(C&e  fitoeitfibe  pre#£  Cambrib0e 


16*3 


COPYRIGHT,   I9IO,  BY  HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
ALL   RIGHTS  RESERVED 


INTRODUCTION 


It  is  life  which  trains  men  —  life  abounding  in 
deeds  and  thoughts,  among  men  and  things. 
^Wherever  there  is  vital  interaction  between  a 
(mind  and  its  world  there  is  real  education.  Edu- 
cative power  is,  thus,  broadly  distributed.  Its 
centres  of  influence  are  the  social  institutions 
—  school,  home,  church,  vocation,  and  neighbor- 
hood life.  Together  they  bear  the  total  work  of 
training  men,  with  all  the  economy  and  efficiency 
which  comes  through  a  division  of  labor.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  relative  strength  and  weakness  of 
their  structures,  they  supplement  and  reinforce 
one  another. 

This  distribution  of  educative  power  among 
the  social  institutions  is  by  no  means  a  fixed 
division  of  burdens,  set  once  and  for  all  by  tradi- 
tion or  reason.  The  needs  of  society  lay  their 
heavy  demands  now  upon  one  agent,  now  upon 
another.  And  in  the  shifting  currents  of  social 
progress,  some  institutions  once  powerful  are  left 
weakened,  if  not  helpless,  while  other  institutions 
wax  strong  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  time. 
The  homes  of  the  urban  industrial  classes  have 
iii 


28461.5 


INTRODUCTION 

not  the  moral  influence  over  children  exercised 
by  the  family  life  of  the  farmer ;  the  church  grips 
fewer  members  with  its  theological  doctrines 
than  it  did  a  century  ago ;  the  trades  do  less  for 
their  apprentices  in  the  modern  factory  than  they 
did  when  lodged  in  the  household;  the  press 
has  more  influence ;  libraries  are  more  plentiful ; 
and  the  school  has  grown  to  be  a  modern  giant 
where  once  it  was  a  puny  babe.  The  same  old 
institutional  forces  beat  upon  the  nervous  sys- 
tems of  men,  but  the  relative  distribution  of  their 
work  has  changed,  and  is  changing. 

In  all  these  variations  of  influence,  one  strik- 
ing tendency  stands  out  clearly :  As  the  agencies 
for  incidental  and  informal  education  become  in- 
capable of  training  men  for  their  complex  en- 
vironment, society,  becoming  increasingly  self- 
conscious,  gathers  up  the  neglected  functions  and 
assigns  them  to  the  school,  the  one  institution 
entirely  under  its  control.  As  church  and  family 
life  ceases  to  keep  pace  with  the  moral  demands 
of  our  intricate  social  life,  the  problem  of  moral 
education  becomes  conspicuous  in  the  schools. 
As  the  work  and  play  of  children,  under  the  con- 
ditions of  city  life,  become  restricted  so  as  to 
deprive  them  of  robust  physical  activities  in  the 
fresh  air  and  sunshine,  the  school  is  called  upon 
iv 


INTRODUCTION 

to  combat  the  danger  with  systematic  physical 
training.  As  factory  and  shop  employment  be- 
comes specialized  and  scientific,  and  the  system 
of  apprenticeship  fails  to  make  good  workmen, 
the  obligation  to  train  efficient  employees  is 
thrust  upon  the  schools. 

Just  now  the  shifting  of  vocational  education 
from  the  field  of  industry  to  the  school  is  the 
crucial  problem  of  our  school  organization.  The 
schoolmaster  is  confronted  with  the  task  of 
dealing  with  a  problem  alien  to  his  experiences 
and  contrary  to  his  traditions.  Our  schools  have 
always  been  dominantly  cultural  in  their  aims, 
but  the  new  vocational  training  must  be  prac- 
tical. The  old  education,  in  order  to  maintain 
national  solidarity,  dealt  with  a  common  stock 
of  facts,  habits,  and  ideals  necessary  to  all  men  ; 
the  newer  type  of  training,  which  is  to  supple- 
ment this  traditional  culture,  is  as  variable  and 
as  specialized  as  men's  occupations. 

A  thousand  difficult  questions  are  raised  that 
school  tradition  cannot  answer.  The  schoolmas- 
ter must  grope  for  his  solutions  in  the  few  estab- 
lished facts  of  his  new  case  and  build  new 
methods,  which  will  often  be  radical  departures 
from  all  that  his  conservative  mind  has  known 
and  revered  in  scholastic  standards.  In  accept- 


INTRODUCTION 

ing  responsibility  for  the  vocational  training  of 
American  children,  the  school  plunges  itself  into 
a  period  of  transition,  in  which  old  ideals  are  futile 
and  new  ideals  but  half-discovered.  Clear  think- 
ing, the  great  need  of  the  moment,  is  obscured 
by  the  controversies  that  inevitably  arise  when 
two  sets  of  traditions,  born  of  two  separate  in- 
stitutions, are  suddenly  thrust  together  in  a  con- 
flict which  dulls  tolerance,  increases  vehemence, 
and  destroys  poise.  Only  slowly,  and  under  care- 
ful leadership,  are  the  fundamental  lines  of  solu- 
tion laid  bare. 

Already,  however,  the  fundamental  principles 
that  must  guide  us  in  the  organization  of  voca- 
tional education  have  been  revealed.  A  broad 
social  point  of  view,  more  inclusive  than  the  nar- 
rower visions  of  either  the  traditional  schoolmaster 
or  the  industrial  leader,  tempers  local  traditions, 
reconciles  opposition,  and  constructs  new  poli- 
cies. A  close  study  of  experience  at  home  and 
abroad  in  the  matter  of  industrial  training  is  con- 
cretely suggestive  of  what  can  and  cannot  be 
done  in  the  domain  of  organization  and  teaching 
method.  Such  a  measure  of  our  educational  ex- 
perience in  vocational  training,  as  may  be  con- 
servatively presented  at  the  present  time,  is  here 
outlined,  with  suggestive  interpretations  and 
vi 


INTRODUCTION 

clarifications  of  the  necessary  terminology.  It  is 
offered  in  the  faith  that  it  will  be  of  practical 
assistance  in  leading  both  the  public  and  the 
professional  mind  into  safe  channels  of  thought 
and  action. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 
VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Some  General  Distinctions 

If  we  consider  the  educative  process  broadly,  we 
discover  that  a  variety  of  agencies  contribute 
to  it.  Under  ordinary  circumstances,  the  child 
learns  writing  in  the  school,  language  in  the  home, 
religious  ideas  in  the  church,  games  on  the  play- 
ground, and  practical  skill  in  the  workshop.  The 
theatre,  the  newspaper,  and  the  club  also  con- 
tribute to  his  stock  of  knowledge,  ideals,  and 
habits.  Within  limits,  the  educative  function  of 
these  various  institutions  is  specialized.  In  the 
home,  the  child  acquires  the  fundamentals  of 
moral  training,  as  well  as  a  variety  of  physical 
habits  and  accomplishments.  The  home  being 
woman's  chief  workshop,  the  girl  acquires  there 
also  the  knowledge  and  skill  that  make  for  her 
eventual  vocational  efficiency.  Some  homes  also 
contribute  the  manners,  interests,  tastes,  and 
knowledge  that  we  call  culture.  In  the  workshop 
or  on  the  farm,  the  boy  ordinarily  acquires  the 
kind  of  education  that  eventually  fits  him  to  earn 
i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

a  livelihood,  to  be  a  producer.  The  school  gives 
its  share  of  education  in  the  school  arts  (reading, 
writing,  number,  drawing,  etc.),  and  the  begin- 
nings of  literature,  history,  and  science,  as  ele- 
ments of  culture.  The  playground  gives  not  only 
skill  and  means  of  physical  development,  but  on 
it  are  developed  a  variety  of  the  habits  and  atti- 
tudes which  are  moral  or  social  in  their  nature. 
The  newspaper,  library,  and  the  stage  give  not 
only  a  range  of  knowledge,  good  or  bad,  but  also 
contribute  to  the  unfoldment  of  vocational  and 
social  ideals  and  appreciations. 

A  further  examination  of  the  entire  educative 
process  will  show  that,  as  developed  by  each  of 
the  above  agencies,  it  varies  largely  in  degrees 
of  purposiveness  and  artificiality.  The  child  learns 
the  family  language  through  the  simple  and  easy 
exercise  of  the  instincts  of  imitation ;  the  begin- 
nings of  vernacular  language  require  no  salaried 
teacher.  On  the  other  hand,  the  teaching  of 
Greek  requires  specially  trained  teachers,  and  a 
conscious  adaptation  of  means  to  ends ;  it  pre- 
sents the  aspects  of  an  artificial  and  regulated 
process.  The  normal  child  on  the  playground, 
with  no  oversight,  and  no  artificial  direction,  ac- 
quires a  wide  range  of  powers  and  knowledge ; 
but  special  instruction  and  appliances  are  neces- 
2 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

sary  to  teach  military  drill  or  various  forms  of 
gymnastics.  The  teaching  of  reading  is  a  pro- 
cess requiring  usually  much  skill  and  conscious 
method ;  but  once  the  mechanics  are  acquired, 
the  growth  of  reading  habits  and  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  in  this  field  may  proceed  to  a  certain 
extent  without  teachers  in  an  environment  of 
books  and  newspapers.  The  boy  on  the  farm 
acquires  many  forms  of  vocational  skill  with  prac- 
tically no  conscious  or  purposive  teaching ;  but 
the  metal-worker's  art,  and  the  engineer's  know- 
ledge require  careful  and  expensive  education  of 
an  artificially  organized  kind.  We  thus  see  that 
a  consideration  of  the  educative  process  in  any 
field  requires  that  we  consider  the  learning  which 
is  possible  without  expensive  and  purposive  ad- 
justments (unorganized  education),  and  that  which 
in  greater  or  less  degree  demands  them  (organized 
education). 

Again  we  may  consider  the  entire  educative 
process  from  the  standpoint  of  the  various  ends 
or  purposes  which  may  be  kept  in  view  in  select- 
ing and  appraising  means  and  methods.  All 
ordinary  education  readily  lends  itself  to  a  four- 
fold division  in  this  connection,  (a)  There  is  the 
kind  of  education  whose  chief  aim  is  to  produce 
and  preserve  bodily  efficiency,  such  as  health, 
3 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

strength,  and  working  power.  This  we  call  broadly, 
physical  education,  (b)  Next  is  the  kind  of  edu- 
■ ..-.  cation  whose  chief  aim  is  to  promote  the  capacity 
to  earn  a  living,  or,  expressed  in  more  social  terms, 
trat  -j^e  capacity  to  do  one's  share  of  the  productive 
work  of  the  world,  (c)  A  third  form  of  education 
is  that  designed  primarily  to  fit  the  individual 
to  live  among  his  fellows.  Religious  education, 
moral  instruction,  and  training  in  civics  contribute 
to  this  end.  (d)  There  is  furthermore  the  kind  of 
education  that  aims  to  develop  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  capacities,  apart  from  any  practical  use 
to  which  these  may  be  put.  This  education  is 
frequently  designated  by  the  term  "cultural," 
but  in  a  somewhat  special  sense  of  that  word. 
The  two  last  divisions,  which  contribute  respec- 
tively to  the  improvement  of  social  life  and  to  the 
development  of  personal  culture,  will  in  this  dis- 
cussion be  grouped  together  under  the  general 
designation,  "  liberal  education."  That  education 
whose  chief  aim  is  to  fit  for  productive  capacity 
will  be  designated  as  "vocational." 

What  is  Liberal  Education  ? 

Historically  speaking,  a  liberal   education  is 
that  which  aims  to  broaden  the  intellectual  and 
emotional  horizon  of  the  individual,  and  espe- 
4 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

daily  in  those  fields  that  are  not  involved  in  the 
earning  of  a  livelihood.  Schools  of  liberal  arts 
have  always  sought  to  remove  youths  for  some 
time  from  the  pressing  necessities  of  practical 
life,  and  to  open  up  to  them  the  traditions, 
sciences,  and  arts  which  are  part  of  the  common 
heritage.  We  commonly  associate  the  idea  of 
liberal  education  with  leisure,  because  some  lei- 
sure is  and  has  been  necessary  to  its  acquisition, 
and  in  the  leisure  periods  of  life  liberal  education 
finds  its  greatest  opportunities  for  expression 
and  application.  It  is  the  aim  of  liberal  educa- 
tion to  give  mastery  of  those  arts  —  reading, 
writing,  number,  drawing  —  which  constitute  the 
open  doors  to  the  world's  stock  of  knowledge 
and  ideals ;  and  to  add  the  beginnings  of  those 
studies  —  history,  literature,  science,  art  — which 
contribute  to  the  enlightenment  and  enlarge- 
ment of  the  individual,  for  the  purpose  both  of 
personal  gratification  and  enjoyment,  and  of 
giving  him  the  outlook,  the  ideals,  and  the  know- 
ledge which  render  him  a  better  member  of  the 
social  group  to  which  he  belongs. 

Liberal  education  may  be  interpreted  as  that 
which  concerns  itself  with  the  consuming,  as  op- 
posed to  the  productive  processes  in  life.  Each 
individual  uses  in  greater  or  less  degree,  accord- 
5 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

ing  to  his  cultivation  and  social  capacity,  the 
world's  stock  of  literature,  history,  music,  art, 
science,  and  human  associations,  as  well  as  the 
embodiments  of  these  in  more  material  forms. 
It  is  the  function  of  liberal  education  to  teach 
persons  how  to  use  or  consume  to  the  best  indi- 
vidual or  social  advantage  the  work  of  others. 
Liberal  education  is  not  primarily  concerned  with 
the  making  of  the  efficient  producer,  although  it 
makes  important  indirect  contributions  to  that 
end;  but  it  is  vocational  education  which  aims 
to  train  the  producer  as  such,  and  it  looks  pri- 
marily towards  specialization.  It  has,  as  will  be 
shown  later,  its  own  pedagogy ;  and  its  methods 
may  even  be  in  opposition  to  those  of  liberal  edu- 
cation. 

Those  teachers  and  leaders,  who  have  de- 
veloped for  the  world  its  systems  of  liberal  edu- 
cation, have  often  felt  obliged  to  preach  a  certain 
unworldliness  to  their  disciples.  To  them,  as  to 
the  religious  devotees  of  all  ages,  the  practical 
affairs  of  life  were  apt  to  be  associated  with 
something  that  was  common  and  vulgar.KThe 
schoolmaster  of  the  past  not  only  was  not  a  prac- 
tical man,  but,  to  a  certain  extent,  his  success  in 
his  work  depended  upon  his  contempt  for  things 
practical.  It  was  his  mission  to  uphold  the  de- 
6 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

sirability  of  those  activities  which  are  not  con- 
nected with  bread-winning,  and  which,  at  least 
from  a  short-sighted  point  of  view,  are  even  in 
opposition  to  it.  The  home  and  the  shop,  where 
the  practical  affairs  of  life  controlled,  were  always 
calling  the  schoolmaster's  followers  away  from 
him ;  consequently,  in  time  he  grew  to  distrust 
them,  and  naturally  to  undervalue  their  part  in 
the  integral  process  of  the  development  of  the 
individual. 

In  these  later  days,  we  have  learned  more 
about  the  psychological  side  of  liberal  education. 
We  have  discovered  that,  so  far  as  large  numbers 
of  individuals  are  concerned,  the  truest  form  of 
liberal  education  does  not  consist  in  dealing  with 
those  things  which  are  most  remote  from  the 
practical  affairs  of  daily  life.  But  it  nevertheless 
remains  true  that  there  lingers  a  considerable 
hostility,  on  the  part  of  those  who  promote  liberal 
education,  to  that  teaching  and  those  activities 
which  are  controlled  by  the  obvious  necessity  of 
contributing  to  the  world's  practical  work.  A 
man  may  not  be  trained  as  a  bookkeeper,  or  a 
machinist,  or  a  farmer,  at  the  same  time  that  he 
is  learning  to  be  a  student  and  lover  of  music. 
For  him  who  would  indulge  in  the  pleasures  of 
literature,  time  must  be  set  apart  from  the  prac- 
7 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

tical  affairs  of  life.  Too  early  devotion  to  bread- 
winning  occupations,  even  as  a  learner,  may 
deprive  the  boy  or  girl  of  the  opportunities  to 
open  doors  of  science,  art,  literature,  history,  and 
social  knowledge.  Consequently,  we  may  affirm 
that  not  only  does  the  schoolmaster  still  inherit 
an  opposition  to  vocational  education,  but  within 
limits,  his  opposition  is  justified  by  the  fact  that 
liberal  education  and  vocational  education  repre- 
sent somewhat  different  aims,  and,  historically 
speaking,  involve  different  systems  of  pedagogy. 
As  will  be  shown  later,  each  contributes  some- 
what to  the  other;  but  in  spite  of  the  demands  of 
the  practical  man,  the  world  needs  more,  rather 
than  less,  of  liberal  education,  provided  it  does  not 
close  the  door  to  ultimate  vocational  efficiency. 

What  is  Vocational  Education  ? 

In  vocational  education,  the  choice  of  materials 
and  methods  is  primarily  determined  by  the  ne- 
cessities of  some  of  the  numerous  callings  or 
groups  of  related  callings,  into  which  the  workers 
of  the  world  have  divided  themselves.  That  vo- 
cational education  which  is  specialized  to  the  pre- 
paration of  lawyers,  physicians,  and  teachers,  we 
call  professional ;  that  which  is  designed  to  tram 
the  bookkeeper,  clerk,  stenographer,  or  commer- 
8 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

cial  traveler,  including  business  leadership,  we 
call  commercial ;  that  which  is  organized  with  ref- 
erence to  the  needs  of  the  bricklayer,  the  machin- 
ist, the  shoemaker,  the  metal-worker,  the  fac- 
tory hand,  and  the  higher  manufacturing  pursuits, 
we  call  industrial  education ;  that  which  conveys 
skill  and  knowledge  looking  to  the  tillage  of  the 
soil  and  the  management  of  domestic  animals,  we 
call  agricultural ;  and  that  which  teaches  the  girl 
dressmaking,  cooking,  and  management  of  the 
home,  we  call  education  in  the  household  arts. 

In  some  form  or  other,  vocational  education  is 
older  than  liberal  education,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  men  have  always  had  to  have  occupations 
involving  more  or  less  skill,  by  which  they  could 
earn  a  livelihood.  In  the  primitive  wilderness, 
the  boy  followed  his  father  in  hunting  and  fish- 
ing and,  in  time,  by  processes  of  imitation  and 
suggestion,  coupled  with  the  learning  which  comes 
from  trial  and  error,  he  became  himself  a  fairly 
efficient  hunter  or  fisherman.  At  the  same  time, 
the  girl  was  at  work  with  her  mother,  acquiring 
the  simple  arts  of  preparing  food,  dressing  skins, 
and  tilling  the  soil,  which  were  the  woman's  con- 
tributions to  the  necessary  work  of  the  time.  By 
and  by,  some  of  the  arts  became  highly  complex, 
and  the  processes  of  transmitting  them  from 
9 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

father  to  son  necessitated  better  organization. 
There  grew  up  in  the  ancient  crafts  the  system 
of  apprenticeship,  which  directed  and  organized 
the  efforts  of  the  young  learner.  The  apprentice- 
ship system,  as  inherited  by  certain  of  the  great 
vocations  of  the  Middle  Ages,  was  undoubtedly 
the  most  perfect  system  of  vocational  education 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  obvious  that 
other  agencies  than  schools  have  long  been  re- 
sponsible for  vocational  education.  The  home 
was  the  first  great  instrumentality  to  this  end. 
This  was  supplemented  and,  at  times,  succeeded 
by  the  systems  of  apprenticeship  which  have  been 
mainly  carried  out,  under  the  sanction  of  the  law, 
by  private  or  philanthropic  agencies.  Society  has 
always  recognized  the  very  great  necessity  of 
some  form  of  vocational  education,  but  both  the 
interests  and  capacities  of  those  concerned  have 
commonly  made  it  possible  to  dispense  with  State 
control  and  support  of  it.  Private  and  philan- 
thropic agencies  have  usually  been  sufficient. 

It  is  true  that  certain  of  the  higher  vocations 
have  long  been  acquired  under  school  condi- 
tions and,  not  infrequently,  at  public  expense. 
The  mediaeval  universities  had  their  professional 
schools  of  law,  medicine,  and  theology.  The  mili- 
10 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tary  education  of  leaders  was  long  ago  made  a 
national  obligation.  Not  a  small  part  of  the  pre- 
paration of  architects,  artists,  and,  sometimes, 
literary  leaders,  has  been  deliberately  assumed 
by  governing  bodies.  In  America,  where  private 
and  philanthropic  effort  was  not  sufficient,  even 
the  national  government  has  assisted  in  the  found- 
ing of  schools  of  agriculture  and  engineering  — 
essentially  schools  of  higher  vocational  education. 
Three  fourths  of  a  century  ago,  Massachusetts 
began  to  prepare  at  public  expense  teachers  for 
the  public  schools,  —  a  special  form  of  vocational 
education.  In  all  these  instances,  the  State  has 
stepped  in  to  supply  a  well-defined  need  in  fields 
where  private  effort  did  not  suffice.  The  State 
did  not  do  this  for  the  sake  of  the  individuals 
who  were  to  be  educated,  but  in  its  own  inter- 
est, inasmuch  as  it  greatly  needed  these  highly 
trained  leaders. 

But  in  another  field,  society  early  found  public 
action  necessary  for  the  development  of  vocational 
education.  There  are  those  unfortunates — de- 
linquents, dependents,  and  defectives  —  for  whom 
the  home  no  longer  exists,  or  for  whom  the  home 
is  a  wholly  insufficient  instrument  of  education. 
First  under  philanthropy,  and  then  under  State 
action,  schools  arose  for  the  purpose  of  giving 
ii 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

what  was  conceived  to  be  the  necessary  educa- 
tion for  these  classes.  But  liberal  education  was 
soon  found  to  be  inadequate,  because  it  left  the 
individual  unprepared  for  the  practical  affairs  of 
life :  so  in  almost  all  cases,  institutions  attempt- 
ing the  education  of  the  orphan,  the  cripple,  the 
deaf,  the  blind,  and  the  young  delinquent,  have 
found  it  necessary  to  evolve  vocational  education. 
These  in  stitutions  have  done  a  remarkable  amount 
of  experimenting,  and  the  results  of  their  efforts, 
inadequate  though  they  yet  be,  are  worthy  of  pro- 
found study  on  the  part  of  all  who  are  interested 
in  the  general  theory  of  vocational  education. 

In  another  field,  vocational  education  under 
school  conditions  has  justified  itself.  At  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War,  the  social  life  and  organi- 
zation of  the  negro  people  of  the  South  were 
in  a  badly  disorganized  condition.  Family  rela- 
tionships had  been  much  impaired,  and  were 
frequently  non-existent.  In  other  words,  the 
home  as  an  agency  of  education,  vocational  or 
otherwise,  was  unable  to  perform  its  customary 
functions.  Apprenticeship  agencies  had  not  de- 
veloped ;  consequently,  the  acquisition  of  voca- 
tional skill  and  interest  was  not  provided  for 
among  the  negroes.  The  most  successful  schools 
that   grew  up   to   meet   this   need   were  those 

12 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

which  offered  both  liberal  and  vocational  educa- 
tion, and  in  a  sense  made  the  latter  the  ground- 
work for  the  former.  In  the  best  negro  schools 
of  the  South  to-day,  one  will  find  many  vocations 
taught  in  a  very  practical  and  effective  manner, 
and  it  is  generally  conceded  that  the  social  ef- 
fects of  this  training  are  genuinely  worth  while. 

We  may  sum  up  by  saying  that  the  education  yfl u\Vi  tr 
whose  controlling  motive  in  the  choice  of  means-p   r+ 
and  methods  is  to  prepare  for  productive  eft-       ^*  ** 
ciency  is  vocational;  that  vocational  education, 
more  or  less  unorganized  and  resting  largely  on 
native  instincts  and  capacity,  has  always  existed  ; 
that  it  tends  to  be  organized  under  school  con- 
ditions only  where  special  demands  or  necessities 
exist;  and  that  from   the  standpoint  of  social 
necessity,  vocational  education  given  by  some 
agency  is  indispensable. 

The  Modern  Social  Need  of  Vocational  Edu- 
cation under  School  Conditions 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  there  is  abroad 
in  all  civilized  countries  a  growing  conviction 
that  vocational  education  should  be  better  organ- 
ized and  more  efficient.  If  this  conviction  is  well 
founded,  it  rests  upon  one  or  both  of  two  condi- 
tions :  Either  the  older  agencies  —  the  home,  the 
13 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

shop,  and  other  forms  of  participation  in  pro- 
ductive industry — have  lost  their  efficiency;  or 
else  the  demands  of  modern  life  are  changing, 
and  imposing  requirements  which  can  be  no 
longer  met  by  these  agencies.  An  analysis  of 
the  various  types  of  productive  effort  will  show 
that  in  some  cases  one,  and  in  some  the  other, 
condition  prevails ;  while  in  not  a  few  instances, 
the  contemporary  situation  is  the  result,  on  the 
one  hand,  of  the  decay,  in  old  institutions,  of  vo- 
cational teaching,  accompanied  by  a  correspond- 
ing increase  in  the  complexity  and  more  scientific 
character  of  the  industries  themselves. 

It  is  a  matter  of  common  observation,  for  ex- 
ample, that  the  apprenticeship  system  in  many 
trades  has  been  rendered  ineffective  by  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  old  form  of  industry  in  its 
complicated  form.  What  is  known  as  the  factory 
method  of  production  has  to  a  large  extent  elim- 
inated the  handicrafts  in  which  apprenticeship 
had  attained  its  better  development.  Specialized 
production  prevents  the  shop  from  offering  op- 
portunities for  a  rounded  or  efficient  vocational 
education. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  home  as  an  educa- 
tional agency  breaks  down  in  those  cases  where 
the  industry  is  centralized,  and  the  growing 
14 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

child  no  longer  participates  in  the  processes  car- 
ried on  in  proximity  to  the  home.  Under  more 
primitive  industrial  conditions,  the  weaver,  the 
metal-worker,  the  baker,  the  cabinetmaker,  the 
blacksmith,  and  the  printer  worked  in  or  adja- 
cent to  the  home  ;  the  boy  early  became  an  as- 
sistant and  with  alert  instincts  soon  acquired  a 
considerable  insight  and  experience,  which  con- 
tributed a  valuable  foundation  for  subsequent 
study.  But  the  urban  home  offers  no  such  op- 
portunities ;  the  father  goes  far  away  to  his  work, 
and,  from  the  boy's  point  of  view,  the  most  con- 
spicuous fact  about  the  factory,  is  the  sign  of 
"No  Admittance"  over  the  door.  Here  we  have 
a  well-defined  instance  of  the  loss  on  the  part  of 
the  home  of  its  power  to  perform  its  part  in  the 
educational  process. 

The  farm  furnishes  an  instance  of  another 
kind.  It  has  always  been  regarded  as  a  valuable 
agency  in  vocational  education,  because  of  the 
richness  of  experience,  and  the  necessary  obliga- 
tion for  participation  in  productive  industry  to 
be  found  there.  The  farmjof  to-day  is,  at  its  best, 
as  effective  as  it  has  ever  been  to  transmit  from 
father  to  son  the  simple  arts  of  agriculture  and 
stock-management. 

But  modern  agriculture  has  tended  to  become 
15 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

more  than  a  simple  art ;  it  is  increasingly  a  field 
of  applied  science.  The  father  of  to-day  may  be 
fairly  competent  in  the  old  type  of  farming,  but 
be  quite  incompetent  to  convey  to  his  son  the 
scientific  principles  and  practices  on  which  the 
new  and  successful  type  of  agriculture  must  rest. 
The  tillage  of  the  soil,  the  selection  of  seed,  the 
rotation  of  crops,  the  destruction  of  insect  pests, 
the  harvesting  and  curing  of  various  products, 
the  feeding  of  stock,  the  packing  and  marketing 
of  things  to  be  sold,  — all  these  involve  more  and 
more  a  kind  of  scientific  insight  and  training, 
which  can  be  acquired  only  under  special  condi- 
tions of  education.  Here  the  home  has  not  de- 
clined in  efficiency,  but  the  demands  of  modern 
life  are  such  that  it  can  no  longer  meet  the  mod- 
ern need  for  vocational  education. 

Everywhere  the  social  worker  is  confronted 
by  deplorable  consequences  of  these  develop- 
ments of  the  modern  economic  system.  These 
are  the  incidents  and  not  the  necessary  products 
of  that  system,  however,  and  it  would  be  the 
sheerest  folly  to  desire  to  restore  the  old  and 
less  effective  forms  of  production  for  the  sake 
of  the  educational  possibilities  which  they  con- 
tained. Everywhere  we  see  thousands  of  boys 
growing  up  through  the  critical  years,  with  no 
16 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

opportunity  for  effective  training  for  a  vocation. 
They  enter  the  non-educative  occupations  only 
to  emerge  therefrom  as  handicapped,  unskilled 
laborers.  Everywhere  underrclty  conditions,  we 
find  girls  less  and  less  qualified  to  enter  on  home- 
making,  because  of  the  "Tack  of  educational  op- 
portunities in  this  field,  for  the  want  of  which 
the  home  can,  in  relatively  few  instances,  be  held 
responsible.  The  agricultural  population  of  com- 
peting areas  succeeds  only  in  proportion  as  the 
opportunities  for  agricultural  education  have  been 
made  available  to  considerable  numbers  of  those 
who  choose  this  field  of  productive  effort.  In 
many  lines  of  modern  industry  as  practised  in 
the  United  States,  only  the  lower  forms  succeed, 
owing  to  absence  of  skilled  labor.  American 
manufacturers  do  not  choose  unskilled  labor,  but 
have  been  compelled,  in  many  instances,  to  adapt 
themselves  to  it,  wasteful  and  unsatisfactory 
though  the  process  may  be. 

The  evidence  that  the  old  agencies  of  voca- 
tional education  —  the  home,  the  shop,  and  other 
means  of  participation  in  productive  industry  — 
are  no  longer  sufficient,  could  be  multiplied.  It 
is  one  of  the  certain  social  facts  of  our  age. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that,  in  the  process  of 
social  evolution,  the  time  has  arrived  when  voca- 
17 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

tional,  as  well  as  liberal  education  must  be  con- 
ferred, so  far  as  the  large  majority  of  people  are 
concerned,  by  institutions  especially  devoted  to 
this  end.  But  these  institutions  must  be  schools. 
They  must  be  specially  organized  for  the  pur- 
pose of  this  education,  and  they  must  select  their 
courses  and  methods  and  teaching  staff  with 
this  end  in  view.  In  other  words,  the  period  when 
vocational  education  must,  of  necessity,  be  car- 
ried on  under  school  conditions  has  arrived,  so 
far  as  the  majority  of  callings  are  concerned,  as 
it  arrived  decades  ago  in  the  matter  of  profes- 
sional education,  which  is  only  one  division  of 
vocational  education. 

Should  the  State  Support  Schools  for  Vocational 
Education  ? 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  liberal  education  has 
attained  its  profoundest  development  under  the 
auspices  of  the  State.  As  long  as  society  in  its 
corporate  capacity  refused  to  interfere  in  this 
field,  liberal  education  was  a  matter  for  the  select 
few  —  the  so-called  leisure  class.  We  well  know 
the  history  of  the  evolution  of  the  State's  support 
and  control  of  liberal  education.  Prior  to  the  Re- 
formation, the  family  and  philanthropy  (largely 
represented  by  the  church)  did  good  service  in 
18 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

this  field,  but  after  the  Reformation,  it  was  seen 
by  those  who  were  concerned  in  producing  in 
society  the  largest  number  of  able  citizens,  that 
the  State  itself  must  guarantee  the  opportunities 
for  liberal  education  to  all.  Hence  evolved  the 
public  school  system,  from  its  early  beginnings 
in  America  and  Europe  into  the  magnificent  in- 
stitutions of  to-day.  Under  public  support,  were 
first  offered  the  opportunities  for  the  simple 
school  arts ;  but  the  public  school  system  has 
gradually  been  extended  to  include  all  that  which 
is  now  comprised  under  the  conception  of  sec- 
ondary education,  and  in  many  parts  of  the  world, 
also  includes  the  higher,  or  collegiate  stages  of 
liberal  education.  The  policy  of  the  State  in  this 
field  in  all  civilized  countries  has  been  distinctly 
opposed  to  the  principle  of  individualism,  or 
laissez  faire.  More  and  more  the  competition  of 
public  effort  has  made  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
private  activity  in  the  conduct  of  schools.  More 
and  more,  the  schools,  the  teachers,  the  material 
equipment  of  elementary,  secondary,  and  higher 
liberal  education,  have  been  made  freely  avail- 
able to  the  youth  of  the  community.  If  the  prin- 
ciple be  called  socialistic,  the  modern  civilized 
State  has  committed  itself  certainly  to  a  highly 
socialistic  policy  in  liberal  education,  and  it  has 
19 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

pursued  this  policy,  partly  out  of  regard  for  the 
individual,  but  largely  animated  by  the  spirit  of 
the  higher  social  self-preservation. 

During  the  same  time,  however,  with  reference 
to  the  education  which  could  be  called  voca- 
tional, the  modern  State  has,  with  certain  excep- 
tions, followed  if  anything  an  opposite  policy.  It 
is  true,  as  previously  indicated,  that  there  have 
been  fostered  public  professional  schools,  normal 
schools,  and  those  for  the  higher  agricultural  and 
engineering  callings ;  and  that  the  State  has  made 
vocational  education  a  part  of  its  contribution  to 
the  education  of  the  mass  of  helpless  children 
of  the  community;  but,  in  all  other  respects, 
America  and  Great  Britain,  and  to  some  extent 
the  continental  European  nations,  have  only 
grudgingly  recognized  any  obligation  on  the  part 
of  the  State  to  lend  its  aid  to  a  development  of 
vocational  education,  as  it  does  to  that  of  other 
forms.  Philanthropy  has  contributed  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  some  schools  and  in  certain  direc- 
tions, as  in  commercial  education,  private  effort  for 
gain  has  been  sufficient  to  procure  some  very  re- 
spectable developments.  On  the  whole,  however, 
it  seems  to  remain  true  that  vocational  education 
in  schools  under  private  or  philanthropic  effort 
will  remain  as  circumscribed  and  partial  as  was 

20 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

liberal  education  before  the  State  entered  the 
field. 

Within  recent  decades,  the  continental  Euro- 
pean countries  have  increasingly  assumed  re- 
sponsibility for  vocational  education  under  State 
support  and  control.  The  story  of  this  needs  no 
elaboration  here,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  in  Germany, 
Denmark,  Switzerland,  France,  Norway,  and 
Sweden,  a  great  variety  of  schools  with  voca- 
tional intent  have  arisen,  which  claim  and  obtain 
substantial  aid  from  the  State.  To  a  certain  ex- 
tent, Germany  has  made  the  acquisition  of  voca- 
tional training  an  obligatory  matter  which  the 
family  may  not  disregard. 

In  America  there  is  a  growing  conviction,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  vocational  education  under 
school  conditions  is  a  necessity  for  the  great  ma- 
jority of  workers,  and  on  the  other,  that  these 
schools  can  be  provided  adequately  only  by  State 
support.  It  is  a  generally  accepted  political  prin- 
ciple that  the  State  should  not  perform  those 
functions  which  private  effort  can  willingly  and 
efficiently  accomplish;  that  the  State  should  re- 
serve as  its  province  those  fields  of  human  neces- 
sity where  private  and  philanthropic  powers  are 
insufficient  to  the  social  needs  of  the  time.  It  is 
from  this  point  of  view  that  the  desirability  of 

21 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

State  action  in  the  sphere  of  vocational  educa- 
tion must  be  judged.  We  have  first  to  answer 
the  question :  Is  vocational  education  a  social  ne- 
cessity ?  and  in  the  second  place  :  Can  other  agen- 
cies than  the  State  effectively  carry  it  on  ?  A 
variety  of  keen  social  observers  have  practically 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  State  action  is  now 
necessary  under  American  conditions  in  this  field. 
They  are  convinced  that  the  safety  of  the  State 
and  the  happiness  of  individuals  demand  a  better 
vocational  education  than  is  now  obtainable;  they 
cannot  see  that  the  older  non-school  institutions 
are  or  can  be  made  competent  to  this  end ;  they 
are  convinced  that,  under  the  conditions  as  they 
exist  in  a  large  majority  of  callings,  vocational  edu- 
cation must  be  obtained  under  school  conditions; 
and  they  believe  that  these  can  be  successfully 
developed,  maintained,  and  controlled  only  by 
that  agency  which  expresses  the  collective  wis- 
dom and  power  of  society,  namely,  the  State. 

Types  of  Vocational  Education 
For  convenience  of  discussion,  it  is  desirable  to 
classify  the  callings,  into  which  nearly  all  men  and 
women  enter,  into  five  great  divisions.1   These 
are:  — 

1  In  current  discussion  in  France,  a  sixth  division  —  the 
marine  callings  —  is  made. 

22 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

(a)  The  professional ; 

{b)  The  commercial ; 

(c)  The  agricultural ; 

id)  The  industrial,  or  those  connected  with 
manufacturing  and  the  mechanic  arts ; 

(e)  The  household. 

It  is  obvious  that  each  one  of  these  great  di- 
visions possesses  a  number  of  distinctive  charac- 
teristics. The  professional  callings  are  noted  for 
the  elaborate  development  of  the  educational 
means  to  be  employed  in  them,  and  the  length 
of  time  given  to  preparation  for  them.  The  com- 
mercial callings  range  from  those  into  which  girls 
and  boys  enter  at  the  age  of  ten  or  twelve  —  street 
trading,  department  store  work,  and  the  like  — 
to  those  which  are,  in  themselves,  quasi  profes- 
sions. The  agricultural  group  comprises  a  variety 
of  specialized  occupations,  involving  tillage  of  the 
soil,  care  of  animals,  and  the  like ;  also  ranging 
in  complexity  from  the  relatively  simple  and  un- 
skilled to  those  which  involve  almost  professional 
capacity.  The  most  complex  group  is  that  here 
called  the  industrial,  —  embracing  the  great  va- 
riety of  crafts,  trades,  and  manufacturing  pursuits. 
As  is  well  known,  these  range  from  the  highly 
specialized  occupations,  into  which  children,  wo- 
men, and  untrained  men  may  enter  with  little  or 
23 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

no  preparation,  to  the  higher  mechanical  and  en- 
gineering callings  which  possess  an  elaborate 
technique.  The  household  arts  division  here  em- 
braces mainly  the  group  of  callings  that  centre 
around  the  home,  and  is  intended  to  exclude  those 
processes  which,  like  weaving,  spinning,  clothing- 
making,  fruit-preserving,  baking,  and  the  like, 
have  become  separated  from  the  home,  and  are 
to  be  classed  as  manufacturing  occupations.  The 
phrase  "home-making,"  however,  still  implies 
the  possibility  of  considerable  attainment  in  ap- 
plied art  and  science,  when  these  are  involved 
in  the  preparation  of  food,  dressmaking,  the  care 
of  children,  and,  in  general,  the  management  of 
a  home.  In  the  interest  of  logical  completeness, 
a  sixth  division  should  be  recognized,  as  in  France, 
to  embrace  the  callings,  like  those  of  the  fisher- 
man and  the  sailor,  which  have  to  do  with  the  sea. 
For  further  convenience,  we  may  consider 
various  stages,  or  degrees,  in  the  educational 
preparations  for  the  above  groups  of  occupations, 
corresponding  to  the  terminology  now  used  in 
liberal  education :  We  may  call  that  vocational 
training,  which  is  adapted  to  persons  of  average 
capacity  under  fifteen  years  of  age,  "elemen- 
tary" ;  and  that  which  takes  youths  regularly  from 
fifteen  to  eighteen  or  nineteen,  "secondary"; 
24 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

while  that  which  presupposes  an  age  more  than 
eighteen,  and  corresponding  attainments,  may- 
be called  the  "higher  vocational  training." 

Professional  education  is  commonly  classed  as 
higher  education;  that  is,  it  receives  students 
after  the  completion  of  a  secondary  and  some- 
times collegiate  education  ;  but  it  is  also  true  that, 
under  some  circumstances,  the  character  of  the 
elementary,  and  especially  of  the  secondary 
stages,  is  determined  somewhat  by  the  probable 
requirements  of  the  profession  subsequently  to 
be  studied. 

We  now  have  under  school  conditions  higher 
agricultural  education,  and  the  beginnings  of  that 
of  elementary  and  secondary  grade,  these  terms 
being  partly  determined  by  the  age  of  pupils  con- 
cerned, and  partly  by  the  degree  of  intellectual 
advancement  required  before  the  vocational  study 
may  be  taken  up. 

In  the  commercial  callings,  schools  are  found 
for  the  higher,  but  only  rarely  for  the  lower  levels, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  bulk  of  workers 
are  found  in  the  lower  grades  of  these  callings. 
Certain  specialized  phases  of  commercial  educa- 
tion, like  bookkeeping,  typewriting,  and  steno- 
graphy, have  already  been  well  developed  under 
school  conditions. 

25 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

In  the  industrial  group,  the  higher  levels  (if 
we  may  so  classify  the  preparation  for  the  en- 
gineering and  technological  occupations,  which 
might  also  fairly  be  classed  as  professional)  are 
already  well  supplied  with  schools.  It  is  the  aim 
of  contemporary  movements  in  the  United  States 
to  supply  more  extended  opportunities  in  the  sec- 
ondary field,  where  wage-earners  may  be  reached. 

In  the  household  arts,  there  exist  at  the  pre- 
sent time  almost  no  genuine  vocational  schools, 
although  there  are  widespread  opportunities  for 
some  partial  study  and  practice  of  these  arts,  as 
phases  of  liberal  education. 

Pedagogical  Divisions  of  Vocational  Education 

Vocational  education  under  school  conditions 
presents  a  wide  range  of  difficulties,  many  of 
which  grow  out  of  the  peculiar  pedagogy  of  the 
subject.  It  is  well  known  that  in  vocational  edu- 
cation, as  carried  on  in  the  home  and  the  shop, 
the  strong  feature  is  still  to  be  found  on  the 
practical  side  ;  that  is,  most  of  what  the  student 
learns,  he  learns  by  actual  participation.  The 
weak  side  of  this  vocational  training  is  its  absence 
of  theory,  its  inability  to  give  the  student  a  com- 
prehension of  the  laws  and  principles  involved. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  school  is  peculiarly  strong 
26 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

in  its  ability  to  impart  the  theory  or  abstract 
phases  of  the  vocation,  but  is  only  partially  adapted 
under  existing  conditions  to  give  concrete  par- 
ticipation. 

In  the  study  and  practice  which  contribute  to 
vocational  efficiency,  we  may  distinguish  three 
aspects,  each  involving  distinct  pedagogical  char- 
acteristics and  special  problems  of  administra- 
tion. To  train  the  horticulturist,  for  example,  it 
is  necessary  to  give  him  a  variety  of  practical 
experiences  in  working  with  soil  and  plants  and 
with  the  problems  of  marketing.  In  addition,  he 
may,  and  should,  study  those  phases  of  botany, 
physics,  chemistry,  entomology,  bacteriology, 
meteorology,  economics,  etc.,  which  contribute 
useful  technical  information  and  principles.  A 
further  field  of  possible  study  is  found  in  the 
history  of  horticulture  and  the  practice  of  that 
craft  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  the  evolution 
of  plant  life,  etc.  The  first  group  of  studies  and 
practices  may  be  called  the  concrete,  specific,  or 
practical ;  the  second  group,  the  technical ;  and 
the  third,  the  general  vocational  studies. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  machinist,  practical 

work  will  be  suggested  in  connection  with  the 

use  of  the  lathe,  the  forge,  the  drill  press,  and 

other  tools  regularly  employed  in  that  calling. 

27 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

The  technical  studies  will  be  found  in  drawing, 
shop-mathematics,  the  principles  of  mechanics, 
etc.  The  general  vocational  studies  may  consist 
of  readings  in  the  history  of  metal-working,  the 
evolution  of  modern  industry  and  the  place  of 
iron  and  steel  therein ;  in  the  potentialities  of 
trade-unionism,  industrial  cooperation,  and  the 
like. 

For  the  youth  who  is  preparing  to  work  in  a 
commercial  calling,  practical  studies  are  to  be 
found  in  the  actual  work  of  bookkeeping,  type- 
writing, business  practice,  and  salesmanship. 
Technical  studies  may  be  derived  from  these ; 
also  German,  higher  mathematics,  commercial 
law,  etc.,  may  be  pursued  as  technical  studies. 
General  vocational  studies  may  be  found  in  the 
history  of  commerce,  geography  (which  for  some 
callings  would  be  a  technical  study),  readings 
about  industry  in  other  fields,  and  the  evolution 
of  transportation  and  exchange. 

In  the  study  of  home-making,  the  girl  would, 
in  the  actual  performance  of  household  tasks 
such  as  needle-work,  cooking,  cleaning,  nursing, 
and  the  like,  find  the  concrete  basis  in  experi- 
ence for  complete  vocational  study.  Related 
technical  studies  will  be  found  in  those  phases, 
however  simplified,  of  chemistry,  physics,  bac- 
28 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

teriology,  economics,  architecture,  and  exchange, 
which  contribute  to  the  larger  vocational  effi- 
ciency. As  general  vocational  studies,  a  variety  of 
readings  in  the  historic  aspects  of  the  household, 
the  achievements  of  modern  sanitation,  the  work 
of  charity  and  philanthropy,  andjprotective  legis- 
lation suggest  themselves. 

In  existing  schools  where  a  complete  voca- 
tional education  is  carried  on,  these  three  aspects 
are  already  found.  In  the  training  of  teachers, 
for  example,  the  practical  work  is  found  in  the 
practice  school,  and  other  forms  of  apprentice- 
ship. Technical  studies  are  usually  found  in  the 
fields  of  applied  psychology,  method,  and  special 
studies  in  subject  matter.  The  history  of  educa- 
tion, sociology,  educational  practices  in  foreign 
countries,  and  the  writings  and  biographies  of 
educational  reformers  constitute  the  general  vo- 
cational studies.  In  the  training  of  the  physician, 
the  dissecting-room,  the  clinic,  and  hospital  prac- 
tice provide  the  concrete  elements.  Anatomy, 
materia  medica,  chemistry,  and  other  studies 
supply  the  need  for  technical  information  and 
principles ;  in  addition,  the  history  of  medicine, 
medical  sociology,  and  medical  jurisprudence,  as 
well  as  biology  and  psychology,  may  be  regarded 
as  general  vocational  studies. 
*  29 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

From  this  analysis,  certain  conclusions  may  be 
drawn.  In  the  first  place,  as  regards  the  general 
vocational  studies,  it  will  be  apparent  that  these 
involve  methods  and  administration  not  unlike 
those  found  in  the  field  of  liberal  education; 
they  are  based  largely  on  books,  and  have  as  their 
aim,  the  stimulation  of  ideals  and  vocational  in- 
terests, rather  than  the  acquisition  of  useful  in- 
formation. From  some  points  of  view,  these 
general  vocational  studies  may  be  regarded  as 
the  luxuries  of  vocational  education,  although 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  have  a  direct 
usefulness  because  they  stimulate  the  interests 
which  tend  to  make  a  vocation  attractive,  and 
which  undoubtedly  broaden  and  prolong  the  pro- 
ductive life  of  the  worker. 

In  the  second  place,  it  may  be  noted  that  the 
technical  studies  as  described,  however  they  may 
vary  for  different  vocations,  may  also  be  pursued 
largely  under  school  conditions.  To  a  large 
extent,  these  technical  studies  consist  of  art, 
mathematics,  and  science,  in  their  various  appli- 
cations. It  will  be  noted,  however,  that  in  voca- 
tional preparation,  not  so  much  of  pure  science 
and  its  fundamental  principles,  as  applications, 
are  implied.  Bacteriology,  for  example,  as  a  gen- 
eral science,  may  be  pursued  by  but  few  people, 
30 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

but  there  are  certain  applications  of  bacteriology 
which  every  nurse,  housekeeper,  and  farmer 
may,  and  should,  learn.  Meteorology  is  a  difficult 
science,  but  from  meteorology  may  be  taken 
certain  specific  situations  which  may,  and  should, 
be  taught  to  every  farmer.  The  same  principle 
applies  in  the  case  of  mathematics,  although  its 
application  is  yet  obscured  by  the  traditions  of 
teaching  in  this  field.  For  vocational  purposes, 
the  mathematics  needed  by  the  machinist  differs 
widely  from  that  needed  by  the  farmer ;  how  far 
the  bookkeeper  may  need  algebra  in  any  way 
may  be  questioned ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the 
housekeeper  needs  a  form  of  applied  mathematics 
essentially  different  from  all  of  the  foregoing. 

In  the  third  place,  the  concrete  or  practical 
work  as  outlined  above  involves  a  pedagogy  and 
administration  fundamentally  different  from  that 
found  in  most  existing  schools.  It  is  at  this  point 
that  the  traditional  forms  of  education  practi- 
cally break  down ;  and  it  is  in  this  respect  that 
the  problem  of  vocational  education,  especially 
in  connection  with  the  training  of  youths  be- 
tween the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen,  pre- 
sents its  greatest  difficulties.  Modern  experience, 
as  well  as  theory,  tends  to  demonstrate  that  vo- 
cational education  which  ignores  or  slights  this 
3i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

phase  of  practical  training  is  largely  futile.  Fur- 
thermore, the  same  experience  seems  to  indicate 
that  the  concrete  and  practical  must  not  follow 
at  a  considerable  distance  technical  and  general 
vocational  studies,  but  rather  accompany,  and  in 
many  cases,  precede  the  same. 

The  Order  and  Relation  of  the  Pedagogic  Stages 
in  Vocational  Education 

We  have  seen  that,  historically,  the  institu- 
tions which  in  the  past  gave  vocational  education 
were  especially  strong  in  the  practical  or  concrete 
aspect  of  their  subject,  and  weak  in  the  more 
abstract  phases.  The  home,  farm,  and  shop  have 
always  provided  an  abundance  of  practical  tasks 
and  examples  whereby  to  teach  boys  and  girls 
the  simple  vocational  arts.  Under  the  apprentice- 
ship system,  as  fostered  by  guilds  and  govern- 
ments in  the  past,  the  courses  in  practical  work 
were  especially  complete  as  respects  length,  com- 
prehensiveness, and  thoroughness. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  school  has  often  been 
well  equipped  to  give  readily  many  of  the  the- 
oretic or  more  bookish  phases  of  vocational  prep- 
aration. Many  types  of  complete  vocational 
education  have  involved  the  cooperation  of  the 
two  kinds  of  agencies.  Evening  schools,  for 
32 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

example,  have  often  taken  mechanics  who  are 
already  employed,  and  have  given  them  something 
of  the  drawing,  mathematics,  and  science,  which 
they  might  need  to  supplement  the  practical  learn- 
ing of  their  craft.  Correspondence  schools  have 
flourished  owing  to  their  ability  to  give  to  the 
employed  worker  just  the  facts  in  drawing, 
science,  and  other  theoretical  studies  which  he 
might  need.  To  a  large  extent,  the  continuation 
work  in  the  German  schools  is  of  this  order.  It 
takes  various  groups  of  boys  and  girls,  who  are 
employed  in  the  trades,  and  gives  to  them  the 
needed  supplemental  education. 

In  England,  a  considerable  range  of  what  are 
termed  engineering  or  higher  mechanical  occu- 
pations involve  the  requirement  that  stages  of 
study  shall  be  alternated  with  periods  —  some- 
times as  much  as  a  year  in  length — of  actual 
apprenticeship  in  the  industry  itself.  So  wide- 
spread have  been  developments  of  this  sort,  that 
it  not  infrequently  happens  that  educators  and 
others  think  of  vocational  education  solely  in 
terms  of  the  general  and  technical  studies  in- 
volved. This  notion  has  received  added  em- 
phasis from  the  fact  that  the  higher  reaches 
of  all  vocations  require  relatively  so  much  theo- 
retical preparation  as  to  make  it  appear  that 
33 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

the  theoretical  study  is  the  essential  and  vital 
part. 

\"  It  is  becoming  apparent,  however,  that  a  more 
satisfactory  theory  of  the  pedagogy  of  vocational 
education  must  be  developedJ  So  far  as  the  rank 
and  file  of  students  is  concerned,  it  is  increasingly 
evident  that  the  more  abstract  studies,  when  not 
intimately  related  with  concrete  practice,  fail  to 
work  out  into  the  results  expected. 

The  abstract  studies  are  necessary,  but  they 
must  accompany,  or  be  preceded  by,  a  consider- 
able amount  of  actual  participation  in  productive 
work,  to  the  end  that  genuine  vocational  effi- 
ciency may  result.  It  is  even  apparent  that  those 
modified  forms  of  participation,  such  as  are  often 
found  in  business  schools,  manual  training  schools 
and  classes,  agricultural  schools,  and  household 
arts  schools,  are  of  little  service  in  vocational 
education  because  of  their  remoteness  from  the 
conditions  of  genuine  productive  work.  These 
courses  and  studies  will  undoubtedly  be  found 
to  have  value,  when  they  are  arranged  to  follow, 
rather  than  to  precede,  a  considerable  amount  of 
actual  participation :  e.  g.>  it  is  not  impracticable 
that,  for  a  young  apprentice  who  is  working  under 
shop  conditions,  a  certain  amount  of  work  de- 
voted to  special  exercises  for  the  attainment  of 
34 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

particular  types  of  efficiency  might  well  be  worth 
while.  For  the  farmer's  boy,  who  brings  to  the 
agricultural  school  a  considerable  body  of  expe- 
rience acquired  under  conditions  of  reality,  the 
exemplification  of  modern  processes  as  school  ex- 
ercises may  have  decided  value. 

It  is,  furthermore,  becoming  more  and  more 
evident  that  the  technical  studies,  such  as  math- 
ematics, drawing,  physical  science,  biological 
science,  art,  and  the  rest,  have  a  genuine  func- 
tional value  in  vocational  education  only  when 
they  are  closely  integrated  with  the  educational 
results  acquired  through  participation  in  the  pro- 
ductive processes  themselves.  It  is  probably  psy- 
chologically true  that,  for  the  average  person,  the 
study  of  these  applied  arts  and  sciences,  quite 
apart  from  and  anterior  to  any  participation  in 
the  productive  processes,  is  futile  and  unproduc- 
tive so  far  as  vocational  efficiency  is  concerned. 
Nothing  can  be  more  certain,  however,  than  that 
the  study  of  these  same  subjects,  in  close  inter- 
relation with  the  productive  processes,  tends  to 
expand  rapidly  the  capacity  of  the  worker.  We 
may  then  base  on  these  considerations  a  tenta- 
tive theory  of  vocational  education. 

When  the  time  arrives  in  the  development  of 
the  boy  or  girl  that  he  should  seriously  under- 
35 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

take  preparation  for  a  calling,  it  is  necessary  that 
somehow  and  somewhere  he  should  be  able  to 
devote  a  considerable  time  to  actual  participation 
in  the  concrete  processes  of  the  calling  itself.  He 
should  get  very  near  to  reality,  not  only  as  regards 
the  external  characteristics  of  the  work  produced, 
but  also  as  regards  its  market  value,  its  rate  of 
production,  and  the  social  circumstances  attend- 
ant upon  its  production.  Having  thus  come  in- 
timately into  contact  with  reality,  he  should 
have  time  set  apart  in  which  to  study  the  more 
theoretical  aspects  of  the  calling.  Here  again, 
however,  a  sound  theory  would  seem  to  require 
that  mathematics,  science,  art,  history,  and  other 
related  subjects  should  not  require  such  an  order 
of  presentation  as  to  detach  them  from  the  ex- 
perience of  the  young  worker.  This  has  undoubt- 
edly been  the  vice  of  a  great  deal  of  the  technical 
study  carried  on  in  schools  for  the  purpose  of 
supplemental  education.  Between  the  experience 
of  the  worker  and  the  studies  in  the  schools,  there 
have  been  too  few  points  of  contact  to  serve  to 
create  true  pedagogical  efficiency. 

From  this  point  of  view,  for  example,  in  the 

making  of  the  true  agriculturist  of  middle  rank, 

we  should  expect  the  boy  to  participate  for  a  part 

of  each  day,  or  week,  or  month,  or  year,  in  the 

36 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

actual  productive  work  of  the  home  or  school 
farm.  We  should  expect  him  to  study,  not  gen- 
eral botany,  but  that  botany  which  is  naturally 
suggested  by  the  conditions  under  which  he 
works  ;  his  study  of  fertilizers,  from  the  chemical 
and  economic  point  of  view,  should  begin  with 
the  fertilizers  which  he  uses  and  the  conditions 
under  which,  in  attaining  practical  results,  he 
uses  them  ;  his  study  of  bookkeeping  should  grow 
out  of  the  income  and  expenditure  conditions 
under  which  the  work  in  which  he  participates 
is  carried  on ;  his  study  of  physics  should  rest  on 
the  foundation  of  his  actual  experience. 

Similarly,  in  the  making  of  the  mechanic,  we 
should  expect  the  boy  to  go  to  work  either  in 
a  school,  a  shop,  or  a  factory,  where  he  could 
begin  at  the  simpler  stages  of  productive  work, 
and  where,  from  day  to  day,  his  work  should  be 
squared  up  with  the  conditions  of  actual  produc- 
tion. This  phase  of  his  training  should  be  such 
as  to  require  shop  clothing,  shop  hours,  shop  as- 
sociations, the  standards  of  shop  production,  and 
some  knowledge,  and  perhaps  some  sharing,  of 
the  actual  value  of  his  output.  Under  the  phases 
of  this  experience  can  be  collected  related  studies 
in  drawing,  applied  science,  art,  bookkeeping, 
economics,  the  ethics  of  trade-unionism,  and  all 
37 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

the  other  studies  which  have  a  greater  or  less 
vocational  significance. 

In  the  preparation  of  the  girl  for  the  specific 
work  of  home-making,  a  variety  of  opportunities 
for  concrete  participation  suggest  themselves. 
Already  in  this  field,  we  have  a  considerable  va- 
riety of  technical  studies  ;  but,  in  so  far  as  these 
are  ineffective  at  present,  their  weakness  is  due  to 
the  lack  of  correlation  between  them  and  the  home 
experience  on  which  they  are  presumed  to  build. 

The  commercial  callings  now  present,  for  cer- 
tain occupations,  well-worked-out  school  condi- 
tions of  participation,  especially  in  typewriting 
and  certain  forms  of  bookkeeping.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  evident  that  we  have  yet  by  no  means 
solved  the  problems  of  providing  the  right  kind 
of  experiential  basis  for  a  considerable  range  of 
the  clerical  occupations. 

It  must  be  at  once  admitted  that,  for  a  great 
variety  of  vocations,  we  can  yet  hardly  see  how, 
under  school  conditions,  the  concrete  basis  of 
participation  in  productive  work  can  be  found. 

Cooperation  of  Agencies  in  Vocational  Education 

The  foregoing  analysis  suggests  that  in  many 
fields,  the  most  effective  vocational  education 
might  be  achieved  by  the  systematic  cooperation 

38 ' 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  agencies.  We  already  have,  in  the  United 
States,  for  example,  schools  in  which  the  boys 
give  a  part  of  the  time  —  a  half  of  each  day,  or 
alternate  weeks  —  to  shop-work  in  actual  shops, 
and  the  remaining  time  to  schools,  whose  theo- 
retic work  is  intimately  connected  with  that  of 
the  shops.  Where  great  manufacturing,  trans- 
portation, or  commercial  agencies  have  developed 
private  schools  of  their  own,  these  schools  have 
almost  invariably  been  evolved  so  as  to  take  the 
boys  and  girls  who  are  already  giving  a  consid- 
erable amount  of  time  to  the  study  and  practice 
of  the  more  practical  aspects  of  the  calling. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  in  England, 
the  study  of  engineering  callings  requires  part- 
time  participation  in  productive  industry.  In 
some  countries,  in  the  marine  callings,  before 
the  student  may  enter  on  theoretical  study,  he 
must  have  had  a  considerable  time  as  an  appren- 
tice in  practice. 

In  a  large  range  of  German  intermediate  tech- 
nical schools,  one  of  the  requirements  for  admis- 
sion is  that  the  student  shall  have  served  one, 
two,  or  three  years  as  a  worker,  and,  as  such, 
must  have  demonstrated  his  capacity  for  the 
further  theoretic  studies.  Where  correspondence 
work  is  successful,  it  is  so  mainly  because  it  ap- 
39 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

plies  to  a  limited  number  of  workers  who  have 
already  achieved  success  along  practical  lines, 
and  who,  on  the  basis  of  that  practical  experi- 
ence, are  able  to  acquire  technical  power.  In 
some  of  the  best  work  in  household  arts  in  Eng- 
land, the  school  and  the  home,  or  the  school  and 
the  employer,  now  cooperate  so  intimately  that 
the  net  effect  is  an  integral  vocational  education. 
Some  of  the  best  continuation  work  in  the  United 
States  practically  accomplishes  its  results  in  the 
same  way. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  yet  apparent  how  far  this 
cooperative  management  is  possible  in  various 
types  of  industry.  The  individualism  of  the  Ameri- 
can employer  and  the  lack  of  paternalistic  attitude 
in  the  Government  may  make  it  impossible  to 
achieve  this  form  of  cooperation,  even  if  it  were 
not  open  to  objections  on  the  grounds  of  its  prac- 
ticability. If  that  should  prove  to  be  the  case,  it 
will  undoubtedly  be  necessary,  in  the  interests  of 
complete  vocational  education,  to  develop  facili- 
ties for  the  acquisition  of  practical  experience  in 
the  schools  themselves,  and  herein  lies  the  great- 
est administrative  difficulty  to  be  encountered  by  ■ 
these  schools.  To  achieve  this  end,  they  must 
abandon  a  variety  of  traditions  which  are  dear  to 
schoolmasters  and  school  administrators.  The 
40 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

proposed  school  must  have  the  aspect  of  a  shop 
rather  than  a  school.  In  the  length  of  day,  shop 
surroundings,  the  disposal  of  product,  the  train- 
ing of  teachers,  and  the  maintenance  of  discipline, 
shop  standards  rather  than  school  standards  will 
have  to  prevail.  So  radical  a  departure  will  this 
be  that  many  of  the  ablest  students  of  the  situa- 
tion are  convinced  that  a  separate  system  of 
administration  from  that  of  the  schools  of  liberal 
learning  may  prove  to  be  necessary,  temporarily, 
at  least. 

For  a  long  time,  we  may  expect  so-called  voca- 
tional education  to  tend  to  be  theoretic  and 
bookish,  unless  we  frankly  accept  the  notion  that 
the  study  of  theory  must  rest  on  and  intimately 
blend  with  conditions  which  are  eminently  prac- 
tical. It  will  be  seen  that  no  one  can  yet  prophesy 
what  will  be  the  type  of  vocational  arrangement 
for  any  given  industry.  It  may  prove  highly  prac- 
ticable to  bring  private  agencies  into  cooperation 
with  the  schools  ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  prove 
indispensable  that  the  vocational  school  shall 
reproduce  all  the  conditions,  practical  and  theo- 
retical, necessary  for  the  giving  of  complete  vo- 
cational efficiency.  We  are  still  dealing  with  only 
the  beginnings  of  these  problems. 


4i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

The  Relation  of  Vocational  Education  to  Manual 
Training 

In  modern  educational  doctrine,  manual  train- 
ing occupies  an  intermediate  field  between  voca- 
tional and  liberal  education.  In  the  minds  of 
many,  who  were  originally  influential  in  introduc- 
ing drawing,  manual  training,  household  arts,  and 
mechanical  arts,  these  studies  were  designed  to 
contribute  to  vocational  efficiency.  By  school- 
masters and  educational  administrators,  their 
contributions  to  liberal  education  have  been  con- 
stantly exalted,  and  these  subjects  have  been 
largely  divested  of  vocational  significance.  It  is 
undeniable  that  manual  training,  rightly  con- 
ducted, is  an  important  modern  contribution  to 
liberal  education,  and  especially  in  proportion 
as  the  limitations  of  the  home  deprive  the  child 
of  opportunity  for  experience  in  the  field  of  con- 
structive and  manual  activities. 

Few  will  doubt  that  a  wide  range  of  contact 
with  tools  and  the  materials  to  which  tools  are 
applied,  as  found  in  the  hand-work,  bench-work, 
gardening,  cooking,  and  in  the  machine-shop  work 
of  the  modern  schools,  is  exceedingly  desirable. 
It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  the  manual  training  so 
given  is  rarely  controlled  by  the  motive  of  voca- 
42 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tional  training,  and  that  it  rarely  results  in  any 
recognizable  form  of  vocational  efficiency.  In  its 
contributions  to  vocational  education,  it  is  more 
nearly  comparable  with  the  development  which 
results  from  play  and  other  forms  of  spontaneous 
experien  ce-getting. 

The  mechanic  arts  and  technical  high  schools, 
which  were  originally  expected  to  train  the  higher 
ranks  of  factory-  and  trade- workers,  have  gener- 
ally failed  to  achieve  this  end.  These  magnificent 
schools  have  been  sought  in  increasing  numbers 
by  youths  so  situated  as  to  be  capable  of  an  ex- 
tended liberal  education.  They  have  offered 
kinds  of  liberal  education  which  function  more 
vitally,  in  many  cases,  than  do  the  classical 
studies  offered  by  other  schools.  Manual  train- 
ing, however,  has  seldom  been  more  than  an  in- 
cident in  such  general  education.  Only  a  few 
hours  of  work  a  week,  at  best,  have  been  al- 
lotted to  it.  The  spirit  of  approach  has  been  that 
of  the  amateur,  or  dilettante,  rather  than  of  the 
person  interested  in  attaining  vocational  fitness. 
Only  slowly  has  the  work  been  removed  from  the 
field  of  amateurish  effort.  Much  of  the  original 
manual  training  was  affected  by  the  arts-and- 
crafts  movement,  which  is  fundamentally  im- 
portant to  the  consumer  of  products  rather  than 
43 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

to  the  producer.  Much  of  the  household  work 
was  impracticable,  when  considered  from  the 
standpoint  of  household  necessities.  Through- 
out, it  has  been  dominated  by  the  ideals  of  liberal 
education  rather  than  of  vocation,  and  as  such, 
it  has  in  spite  of  a  certain  artificial  character  and 
a  considerable  disregard  of  pedagogic  principles, 
made  important  contributions.  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  a  place  of  increasing  importance  is 
still  reserved  for  manual  training,  as  part  of  a 
liberal  education.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
liberal  education  functions  in  the  avocational,  as 
contrasted  with  the  vocational  side  of  life.  For 
the  prospective  lawyer,  gardening,  cabinetwork, 
or  pottery  may  be  important  and  suggestive  ac- 
tivities. A  small  amount  of  gardening  would 
probably  make  all  people  more  intelligent  con- 
sumers. A  vital  form  of  constructive  work  in  the 
manual  training  field  will  enhance  the  powers  of 
all  people  to  appreciate  the  material  surroundings 
in  which  they  must  live. 

For  girls,  a  wide  range  of  activities  can  be  de- 
vised on  the  manual  training  basis  which  will 
make  them  more  judicious  consumers.  Further- 
more, a  generous  course  in  manual  training  ac- 
tively followed  provides  a  variety  of  suggestions 
for  subsequent  choice  of  a  vocation.  Through  it, 
44 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

many  boys  will  discover  a  bent,  or  capacity, 
along  which  a  vocational  education  may  be  car- 
ried out. 

All  this  assumes  that  manual  training,  like  the 
other  factors  in  a  liberal  education,  will  be  made 
progressively  more  vital;  will  divest  itself  of 
formal  and  pedantic  elements ;  will  cease  to  rely 
upon  a  discredited  psychology ;  and  will  take  ad- 
vantage of  fundamental  instincts  and  interests 
in  those  to  whom  it  applies.  Manual  training 
will  be  taken,  not  in  the  spirit  of  the  vocational 
worker,  but  in  that  of  the  liberal  student,  think- 
ing of  and  comprehending  the  world  in  which  he 
lives.  It  will  preserve  many  of  the  elements  of 
a  high-grade  play  or  avocation.  If  we  assume 
that  little  distinctively  vocational  education  will 
be  found  in  the  elementary  schools,  we  may  also 
assume  that  many  pupils  will  be  allowed  even 
greater  opportunities  than  are  now  available  for 
the  development  of  their  capacities  in  the  field 
of  the  industrial  arts,  studied  mainly  from  the 
point  of  view  of  gaining  variety  and  range  of  ex- 
perience, and  a  basis  for  the  subsequent  selection 
of  vocational  activities. 

During  the  high  school  period,  it  is  highly 
probable  that  an  increasing  number  of  boys  and 
girls  will  find  in  enriched  manual  training  a 
45 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

means  of  liberal  education,  such  as  now  the  tra- 
ditional studies  can  hardly  be  said  to  contribute. 
This  enriched  manual  training  will  be  more  and 
more  correlated  with  mathematics,  science,  art, 
history,  and  economics  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause 
these  to  function  more  certainly  as  elements  in  a 
liberal  education. 

Here  again,  as  in  the  last  section,  it  must  be 
asserted  that  manual  training  and  vocational  edu- 
cation should  be  controlled  by  different  purposes 
to  a  considerable  degree,  though  each  contributes 
measurably  to  the  purposes  of  the  other.  If  man- 
ual training  is  designed  to  give  the  breadth  of 
experience,  to  evoke  the  interests,  and  to  stimu- 
late the  forms  of  appreciation  desired,  then  it 
cannot  be  identified  with  the  intensive  and  pur- 
posive character  of  vocational  education.  Vo- 
cational education  must  be  carried  on,  as  far  as 
possible,  under  the  conditions  of  a  workshop. 
Manual  training,  as  a  part  of  liberal  education, 
must  not  divorce  itself  from  contemporary  life ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  approached 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  breadth  and  interest 
inherent  in  the  true  instrumentalities  of  liberal 
education. 


46 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

Problems  of  Intermediate  or  Introductory  Voca- 
tional Education 

While  for  many  types  of  vocational  education 
it  will  be  possible  to  assume  the  completion  of  a 
high  school  course,  it  will  probably  remain  true 
for  a  long  time  that  large  numbers  of  children, 
owing  to  predisposition,  or  the  economic  situa- 
tion in  which  they  find  themselves,  will  desire 
to  make  beginnings  of  vocational  training  shortly 
after  passing  the  age  of  fourteen  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  in  many  industries  and  commercial  fields, 
children  are  not  desired  under  the  age  of  sixteen. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  in  the  report  of  the 
Douglas  Commission  (of  Massachusetts),  as  well 
as  elsewhere,  that  the  period  from  fourteen  to 
sixteen  is  a  critical  one  in  the  vocational  develop- 
ment of  large  numbers  of  children.  This  is  the 
period  when  economic  necessity  or  ambition 
tempts  children  into  callings  which  are  tempo- 
rarily quite  remunerative  (in  a  relative  sense  for 
these  children),  but  which  are  essentially  non- 
educative.  The  development  of  factory  produc- 
tion and  business  on  a  large  scale  has  opened  a 
great  many  avenues  of  this  sort,  which  are  tempt- 
ing to  youth,  but  the  outcome  of  which  is  the  un- 
skilled worker.  Intermediate  vocational  edu^^n 
47 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

adapted  to  children  from  fourteen  to  sixteen, 
which  should  be  practical  and  productive,  and  at 
the  same  time,  lead  towards  profitable  occupa- 
tions, is  highly  desirable,  but  its  development  at 
the  present  time  is  beset  with  difficulties  and 
uncertainties.  We  know,  for  example,  that  in  the 
industries,  specialization  is  the  rule,  but  during 
this  introductory  period,  it  would  seem  unde- 
sirable for  pupils  to  specialize  much  in  their 
work;  rather,  from  the  theoretical  standpoint,  this 
introductory  preparation  should  be  broad,  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  lead  to  fundamental  forms  of 
skill  and  comprehension  of  large  principles.  To 
reconcile  this  demand  with  the  other  require- 
ment previously  mentioned,  that  the  work  should 
be  productive  and  in  accord  with  prevailing  in- 
dustrial tendencies,  is  difficult.  A  typical  ex- 
ample may  be  found  in  the  shoe-manufacturing 
industry.  This  industry  is  now  subdivided  into 
nearly  one  hundred  distinct  branches,  each  one 
of  which  possesses  some  of  the  characteristics  of 
a  trade.  Assuming  that  the  specialized  workers 
in  this  field  usually  begin  at  sixteen  or  seventeen, 
it  is  questionable  if,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  in 
commencing  industrial  preparation  for  this  work, 
the  young  worker  should  be  specialized ;  on  the 
(^fc|hand,  how  may  the  beginner  engage  in  pro- 

48 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

ductive  work  in  this  field  which  has  a  marketable 
significance  ?  ^     -* 

There  is  also  the  very  great  administrative  dif- 
ficulty of  providing,  under  public  school  condi- 
tions, for  a  wide  range  of  industries  with  their 
expensive  equipment.  The  probabilities  are  that 
in  time  we  shall  discover  a  relatively  small  num- 
ber of  groups  of  industries,  in  each  one  of  which 
a  sufficient  scope  and  variety  of  projects  can  be 
evolved  around  which  the  future  worker  can  per- 
form practicable  and  profitable  operations,  while, 
at  the  same  time,  getting  a  fundamental  voca- 
tional training.  We  know  that  such  groups  of 
related  industries  exist.  In  the  United  States, 
for  example,  over  a  million  workers  are  found  in 
the  wood-working  callings.  Many  of  these  are 
extremely  specialized  but,  at  bottom,  they  rest 
on  a  few  tool-forms  —  hand  and  power  —  and  on 
certain  general  knowledge  and  experience  with 
materials.  It  seems  highly  probable  that  boys  of 
fourteen,  when  beginning  their  vocational  train- 
ing, can  be  set  to  work  on  projects  involving 
wood  and  wood-working  tools  in  such  a  way  as 
to  produce  a  marketable  product  and  that,  by 
gradual  intensification  and  specialization  of  effort, 
they  can  be  made  ready  by  the  age  of  sixteen  for 
more  specific  trade  instruction  in  building,j:ab- 
49 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

inetmaking,  etc.  A  similarly  large  group  of  work 
ers  employ  iron  and  steel,  and  the  tools  related 
thereto,  as  basal  elements.  Other  great  groups 
are  found  in  the  factory  production  of  textile 
goods ;  in  the  manufacture  of  textile  goods  into 
clothing ;  in  the  minor  metal  industries  (ranging 
from  jewelry  to  tinsmithing) ;  in  the  industries 
employing  clay  and  furnace  heat  (glass,  pottery, 
etc.) ;  in  the  semi-mechanical  industries,  involv- 
ing the  control  of  steam  and  other  power-supply- 
ing agencies  ;  in  the  food-packing  industries  (in- 
cluding fruit,  vegetables  and  meat) ;  and  several 
other  divisions. 

It  is  also  quite  possible  that  a  combination  of 
public  and  private  effort,  in  the  form  of  coopera- 
tion discussed  above,  would  enable  the  prospec- 
tive worker  at  the  age  of  fourteen  to  get,  in  the 
factory,  by  passing  from  one  specialized  product 
to  another  for  two  or  three  years,  a  fundamental 
form  of  training  and  a  wide  range  of  experience, 
which  would  make  the  most  satisfactory  founda- 
tion for  subsequent  specialization.  This  discus- 
sion, of  course,  applies  merely  to  the  difficulties  of 
giving  the  concrete  or  practical  side  of  vocational 
training ;  the  theoretical,  or  more  abstract  forms, 
are  relatively  easy  of  achievement. 


50 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  Problem  of  Women  in  Industry 

Any  discussion  of  contemporary  industry  must 
take  account  of  the  fact  that,  under  modern  eco- 
nomic conditions,  women  are  to  an  increasing 
extent  drawn  away  from  the  home  and  into  other 
productive  callings.  It  has  been  pointed  out  by 
some  clear-sighted  writers  that,  to  a  large  extent, 
women  have  simply  followed  the  industries  away 
from  the  home,  as  these  have  been  organized 
more  and  more  under  factory  conditions.  It  is 
well  known,  of  course,  that  textile  manufacture, 
garment-making,  food-preserving,  and  industries 
like  baking  and  brewing  have  been  detached  from 
the  home,  leaving  it  relatively  poorer  in  indus- 
trial opportunity;VFrom  the  social  point  of  view, 
it  must  be  expected  that  all  women,  as  well  as 
men,  will  somehow  and  somewhere  be  producers, 
it  being  assumed,  of  course,  that  home-making  is 
one  of  the  productive  callings.  ^/ 

It  is,  therefore,  not  unnatural  that  women 
should  be  found  in  increasing  numbers  in  the 
industries,  but  a  peculiar  problem  arises  in  con- 
nection with  their  education  therefor.  The  fact  is, 
that  while  enormous  numbers  of  girls  and  young 
women  may  be  expected  to  take  up  wage-earning 
careers,  it  must  also  be  expected,  in  normal  so- 
5i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

ciety,  that  large  numbers  of  these  will  become 
home-makers  after  a  few  years  in  wage-earning 
callings.  Among  factory  populations,  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  to-day  that  the  great  majority  of  girls 
begin  as  wage-earners  at  from  fourteen  to  six- 
teen years  of  age ;  that  they  continue  as  such  for 
from  five  to  eight  years,  after  which  they  marry 
and,  if  conditions  are  at  all  prosperous,  they 
devote  themselves  henceforth  to  home-making. 
Only  under  economic  conditions  of  severe  stress 
is  it  necessary  that  a  woman,  who  must  care  for 
children,  is  obliged  also  to  supplement  that  re- 
sponsibility with  work  outside  the  home;  and 
this  is  a  condition  which  it  must  be  the  aim  of 
social  effort  to  disapprove,  and  reduce  where  pos- 
sible, in  the  interests  of  the  well-being  of  the 
home  and  its  children. 

We  now  see,  therefore,  the  twofold  character 
of  the  education  which  must  be  designed  for  large 
numbers  of  women  :  they  must  be  prepared,  as 
it  were,  for  two  careers,  the  first  of  which  will 
continue  for  a  few  years  only ;  the  other  of  which 
must  be  prolonged  and  for  which  a  proper  edu- 
cation is  highly  desirable.  Under  primitive  con- 
ditions, the  wage-earning  career  of  the  girl  was 
usually  spent  in  some  home  where  she  continued 
to  learn  the  arts  that  would  subsequently  be  of 
52 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

service  in  her  own  home.  Under  modern  wage- 
earning  conditions,  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the 
girl  who  becomes  a  worker  in  the  factory,  de- 
partment-store, or  the  clothing-making  establish- 
ment, is  getting  therefrom  even  a  small  part  of 
the  equipment  that  will  help  her  in  home-making ; 
as  a  matter  of  practical  experience,  it  is  known 
that  during  this  period  she  may  be  positively 
unfitted  as  regards  the  thrift  and  practical  quali- 
ties required  in  the  home  -  maker.  Already  a 
few  vocational  schools  for  girls  have  been  estab- 
lished, having  reference  to  the  wage -earning 
callings.  As  a  part  of  liberal  education,  increas- 
ing attention  is  given  in  all  types  of  schools  to 
preparation  for  household  occupations.  For  the 
girl  so  situated  as  to  be  able  to  take  considerable 
part  of  a  general  secondary  education,  the  oppor- 
tunities for  training  for  the  household  seem  some- 
what promising,  but,  for  that  large  number  who 
desire,  or  who  are  obliged  to  begin  wage-earning 
shortly  after  fourteen  years  of  age,  the  opportu- 
nities for  satisfactory  home-training  seem  to  be 
very  limited.  It  has  been  suggested  that  this 
problem  will,  to  some  extent,  be  solved  by  ac- 
cepting what  seems  to  be  a  present  tendency  of 
the  industries  to  put  the  girls  into  highly  special- 
ized occupations,  requiring  little  or  no  educational 
53 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

preparation ;  and  to  provide  these  same  persons, 
by  extension  classes  and  otherwise,  during  the 
wage-earning  period,  with  some  training  for  home- 
making.  To  an  increasing  extent,  it  seems  prob- 
able that  the  protection  of  the  law  will  be  thrown 
around  the  working  girl,  as  regards  hours  of  labor, 
physical  conditions,  and,  it  may  be  expected,  op- 
portunities for  necessary  continuation  education. 
It  certainly  seems  impracticable  to  deprive  girls 
from  fourteen  to  twenty  of  the  opportunities  for 
wage-earning ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  certainly 
undesirable  that,  during  this  period,  there  should 
be  no  preparation  for  home-making  interests. 
Society  will  undoubtedly  require  that  the  two 
functions  become  harmonized,  to  the  end  that  the 
welfare  of  the  individual  and  the  soundness  of 
society  may  at  the  same  time  be  conserved. 

Problems  of  Agricultural  Education 

Great  interest  attaches  at  the  present  time  to 
agricultural  training,  as  a  phase  of  vocational 
education.  America  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  it  is  increasingly  evident 
that  it  is  socially  wholesome  for  the  State  to 
have  a  considerable  number  of  its  members  in  this 
field  of  productive  work.  It  has  been  previously 
pointed  out  that  education  for  the  agricultural 
54 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

callings  is  no  less  necessary  than  for  the  trades, 
and  that  the  increasing  application  of  science 
makes  greater  demands  on  the  technical  side 
of  this  training.  The  administrative  problems 
of  agricultural  education  are,  however,  somewhat 
peculiar.  In  manufacturing  areas  and  cities, 
where  the  population  is  dense,  the  specialized  in- 
dustrial school  is  feasible ;  in  rural  areas,  if  the 
youth  are  to  remain  at  home,  it  becomes  an 
administrative  problem  Qf  great  difficulty  to  pro- 
vide the  special  facilities  for  agricultural  educa- 
tion. 

The  American  rural  community  has  not  only 
developed  a  system  of  elementary  education,  but 
has,  almost  everywhere,  in  recent  years,  provided 
the  opportunities  for  secondary  education  in  the 
liberal  arts.  Now  that  agricultural  education  is 
also  demanded,  the  question  arises  as  to  whether 
it  can  be  integrated  with  the  existing  liberal  arts 
schools,  rather  than  organized  on  a  separate  basis. 
It  will  later  be  shown  that  for  many  types  of 
vocational  education,  a  certain  amount  of  separa- 
tion in  administration  from  the  ordinary  school 
system  is  necessary,  in  order  to  insure  a  suc- 
cessful development.  In  the  case  of  agriculture, 
however,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  boys 
and  girls  come  usually  from  farm  homes,  where 
55 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

a  certain  amount  of  home  vocational  training,  or, 
at  least,  the  opportunities  for  it,  still  exist.  Some 
careful  students  of  the  subject  insist  that  if,  in 
an  ordinary  high  school,  a  department  of  agri- 
cultural training  under  competent  direction  be 
organized,  and  if  the  work  be  so  conducted  as  to 
take  advantage  of  the  concrete  experience  ob- 
tained in  the  home  and  on  the  farm,  excellent 
results  of  a  vocational  kind  will  follow.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  feared  J>y  many  of  those  genu- 
inely interested  in  agricultural  education,  that 
the  liberal-arts  atmosphere  of  the  high  school  will 
tend  to  make  of  the  agricultural  education  an 
unsubstantial  article,  formed  largely  in  imitation 
of  the  other  studies  ;  that,  in  spite  of  good  inten- 
tions, it  will  tend  to  become  bookish  and  unreal ; 
that  the  older  theory  of  correlating  cultural  and 
vocational  education  will  be  the  undoing  of  the 
latter.  From  this  point  of  view,  general  agricul- 
tural education  can  be  carried  on  only  in  the  sepa- 
rate institution  which  is  more  farm  than  school, 
and  in  which  the  conditions  of  practical  partici- 
pation in  productive  work  form  the  controlling 
element  in  the  total  programme.  Both  forms 
of  organization  are  at  present  having  experi- 
mental development,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that 
within  a  few  years,  we  shall  know,  on  the  basis 

56 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  practical  results,  what  is  desirable.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  a  place  will  be  found  for  each 
form  of  organization.  The  high  school,  with  an 
agricultural  department,  may  prove  to  form  an 
excellent  institution  for  almost  any  rural  com- 
munity, where  cooperation  with  home  activities 
is  practicable ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  this  type 
may  be  supplemented,  for  somewhat  older  chil- 
dren, by  a  centralized  institution,  whose  oppor- 
tunities for  vocational  training  will  be  more  con- 
centrated and  effective,  and  which  shall,  by  short 
courses  and  special  opportunities,  give  the  kind 
of  training  which  is  impossible  to  the  first. 

Problems  of  Administration 

The  administration  of  American  education  is 
commonly  democratic  and  local,  by  which  is  meant 
that  ultimate  control  lies  in  the  hands  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people,  and  the  units  of  admin- 
istration are  small  rather  than  State-wide.  From 
what  has  already  been  said,  it  is  evident  that  vo- 
cational schools,  under  public  support,  will  pre- 
sent many  points  of  difference,  if  not  of  contrast, 
to  schools  now  in  existence,  which  were  founded 
to  perpetuate  and  develop  the  traditions  of  liberal 
education.  Such  schools  must  approximate  shop 
conditions  in  their  arrangements ;  their  hours  per 
57 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

day,  and  days  per  week,  must  gradually  approach 
those  of  productive  industry,  rather  than  those 
of  ordinary  schools;  the  clothing  must  be  that 
adapted  to  practical  work ;  and  the  teachers  must 
be,  primarily,  efficient  workmen  and,  secondarily, 
trained  in  the  art  of  teaching  and  controlling 
young  people. 

It  may  well  be  questioned  how  far  education 
of  this  sort  may  require  special  administrative 
machinery  for  its  conduct,  direction  and  inspec- 
tion, both  as  respects  lay  boards,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  its  expert  managers  and  teachers  on  the  other. 
It  is  feared,  and  not  unjustly,  that  boards  of 
education  accustomed  to  the  traditions  of  liberal 
education  may  allow  the  vocational  training  to 
become  bookish  and  impractical.  Men  engaged 
in  productive  industry  and  who,  therefore,  com- 
prehend some  of  the  limitations  and  necessities 
of  the  training  required  for  practical  efficiency, 
may  well  be  excused  for  their  present  distrust  of 
superintendents  of  schools  and  principals  as  ad- 
ministrators of  these  vocational  types  of  educa- 
tion. In  time,  it  will  undoubtedly  prove  true  that 
men  of  capacity  as  school  administrators  will  come 
fully  to  understand  the  philosophy  of  vocational 
education,  after  which  they  will  become  compe- 
tent as  directors  of  the  same.  In  the  mean  time, 
58 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

it  is  a  practical  and  pertinent  question,  how  far 
A  vocational  education  should  be  separated  from 
/  J  liberal,  in  administration. 

It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  vocational  school 
should  develop  amid  its  own  surroundings,  in 
order  that  it  may  preserve  its  contact  with  pro- 
ductive industry.  Furthermore,  it  is  generally 
agreed  that  a  vocational  school  or  system  of 
schools  should  have,  either  as  a  board  of  control, 
or  as  a  board  in  an  advisory  capacity,  a  body  of 
persons  who,  as  employers,  employees  and  inde- 
pendent workers,  should  have  a  close  contact  with 
productive  industry  of  the  type  concerned.  It  may 
be  found  administratively  feasible  to  allow  the  ex- 
isting boards  of  education,  and  the  boards  which 
provide  support,  to  oversee,  in  a  general  way,  the 
vocational  schools,  provided  opportunities  can  be 
developed  whereby  the  advisory  committees  can 
stand  in  some  effective  relation  to  the  admission 
of  students,  the  selection  of  teachers,  and  the 
determination  of  the  practical  pedagogy  of  the 
school.  A  somewhat  similar  question  arises  with 
regard  to  the  expert  direction.  \Should  the  mana- 
ger of  a  vocational  school  who  nillsl  be,  prima- 
rily,  an  administrator  in  sympathy  with  vocational 
education,  be  under  the  same  general  direction 
as  are  the  heads  of  other  schools  ?  In  some  places, 
59 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

a  superintendent  of  schools  can  be  found,  who 
has  correct  perspective  and  insight  regarding 
vocational  education  ;  in  other  places,  the  super- 
intendent is  dominated  by  academic  traditions, 
and  finds  it  practically  impossible  to  enter  into 
sympathetic  connections  with  the  aims  and  meth- 
ods of  vocational  schools. 

The  question  of  inspection,  or  State  super- 
vision, presents  like  difficulties.  From  the  stand- 
point of  general  administration,  it  is  highly  de- 
sirable that  all  general  educational  forces  should 
be  unified  in  one  State  body,  acting  through  a 
single  general  agent ;  on  the  other  hand,  this 
again  may  fail  to  guarantee  the  sympathetic  and 
practical  oversight  which  is  necessary  for  the 
evolution  of  a  true  vocational  education.  The 
difficulty  may  be  solved  by  the  creation  of  sup- 
plemental advisory  boards,  and  by  the  employ- 
ment, under  the  State  Board,  of  one  or  more  ex- 
perts to  direct  vocational  education  as  specialists, 
who  shall  act  in  a  coordinate  capacity  with  other 
experts. 

The  probabilities  are  that  the  American  States 
will  refuse  to  erect  a  complete,  independent  ma- 
chinery for  the  conduct  of  vocational  education  ; 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  in  all  States,  there  will 
be  attempts  to  introduce,  in  professional  and  ad- 
60 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

visory  capacities,  experts  and  bodies  of  laymen 
who  may  be  expected  to  preserve  a  sympathetic 
attitude  towards  these  newer  types  of  schools, 
and  to  promote  the  ends  for  which  they  exist. 
To  entrust  vocational  schools  entirely  to  those 
familiar  with  the  administration  of  liberal  educa- 
tion only,  will  undoubtedly  often  prove  unwise  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  to  endow  both  expert  and  lay 
bodies  with  definite  responsibilities,  and  to  re- 
quire that  they  cooperate  effectively  with  indus- 
trial and  other  agencies  having  a  special  contact 
with  and  interest  in  vocational  schools,  will  tend 
undoubtedly  to  give  the  maximum  of  efficiency. 

Miscellaneous  Problems 

Several  other  special  problems  will  appear  in 
connection  with  the  organization  and  conduct  of 
vocational  education :  — 

(a)  It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  the 
practical  work  of  the  vocational  school  should 
conform  approximately  to  the  prevailing  condi- 
tions of  industry.  This  also  involves  the  idea 
that  the  output  should  have  a  market  value, 
and  that  it  should  be  disposed  of,  partly  to  the 
profit  of  the  school,  and  partly  to  the  profit  of 
the  individual  worker.  It  should  be  quite  clear 
that  the  motive  of  the  student  can  be  greatly 
61 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

stimulated  by  this  procedure,  and  that  it  is  so- 
cially uneconomical  to  have  students  in  this  work 
confine  their  efforts  to  unproductive  exercises. 
But  the  disposal  of  product  presents  many  dif- 
ficulties. A  part  of  it  can  doubtless  be  absorbed 
into  the  public  utilities  of  the  community,  as,  for 
example,  in  wood-working  shops,  where  book- 
cases and  other  forms  of  furniture  can  be  made 
for  use  in  local  public  schools.  In  some  schools, 
repair  work  comes  into  this  category.  Agricul- 
tural schools,  with  boarding  facilities,  supply  a 
considerable  amount  of  the  food  stuffs  and  tools 
necessary  to  their  work.  On  the  whole,  however, 
these  methods  of  disposal  will  doubtless  prove 
inadequate.  It  will  be  necessary  that  the  product 
of  the  school  find  its  way  to  market,  in  competi- 
tion with  the  output  of  the  industries.  This  form 
of  disposition  will  require  exceedingly  careful 
management,  in  order  that  the  advantages  of 
the  school  may  not  be  used  to  the  detriment  of 
producers  outside.  In  any  event,  it  would  seem 
that  the  total  output  of  such  schools  must  be 
so  small  as  to  present  but  a  small  element  of 
danger  in  this  connection,  provided  the  market- 
ing is  so  carried  on  as  not  to  disturb  prevailing 
market  rates. 

(b)  Vocational  education  will  have  to  be  varied 

L_  62 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

in  kind,  according  to  the  variety  of  callings  for 
which  preparation  is  given.  It  would  also  appear 
that  it  must  be  varied  in  degree  and  aim,  in 
order  to  adapt  it  to  the  varied  capacities  and 
economic  needs  of  those  who  seek  it.  This  means 
that  preconceived  notions  as  to  length  of  courses 
and  organization  of  work  must  give  way  to  the 
necessities  disclosed  by  experience.  It  must  be 
recognized  that  it  will  be  desirable  to  maintain 
short  courses  for  workers  already  in  the  industries, 
and  these  may  partake  of  a  highly  specialized  char- 
acter. Young  men  who  have  been  farming  for 
some  years  may  desire  six-weeks  or  three-months 
courses  in  the  technical  aspects  of  poultry-raising, 
bee-keeping,  and  the  like.  Such  short  and  inten- 
sive technical  courses  are  already  occasionally 
found,  and  are  exceedingly  valuable.  Again,  it 
may  happen  that  a  man  already  employed  in  a 
manufacturing  industry  may  desire  a  short  and 
intensive  course  in  the  use  of  some  particular  tool 
or  process.  These  short  courses  may  either  take 
the  part-time  form,  or  may  involve  the  worker's 
taking  a  furlough  from  his  employment.  Private 
efforts,  like  those  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  already  give  many  suggestions  as  to 
the  feasibility  of  these  short  courses.  It  will  be 
evident  that,  as  vocational  education  develops 

63 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

and  schools  become  equipped,  a  constantly  in- 
creasing range  of  opportunities  will  present  them- 
selves for  useful  service. 

(c)  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  technical  stud- 
ies, in  a  satisfactory  form  of  vocational  educa- 
tion, must  be  closely  related  to  the  practical,  it 
is  evident  that  we  still  lack,  to  a  large  extent, 
the  text-books  and  other  guides  necessary  to  this 
end.  In  fact,  it  may  prove  necessary  that  in  each 
school,  to  a  considerable  extent,  special  syllabi, 
or  text-books,  be  worked  out,  a3ap!eoTTo  the 
local  conditions.  It  will  be  apparent  to  any  ob- 
server that  the  correspondence-schools,  business- 
schools,  and  similar  organizations  have  already 
worked  out  a  variety  of  appliances  of  this  kind. 
It  may  be  expected  that  when  within  these 
schools  the  teachers  have  fully  grasped  the  ped- 
agogy involved,  a  large  variety  of  syllabi  and 
other  helps  will  appear  which  will  assist  any 
teacher  in  finding  problems  and  studies  adapted 
to  his  local  situation. 

(d)  It  has  been  noted  above  that  care  must 
be  exercised  in  developing  vocational  education 
that  market  conditions  be  not  disturbed.  It  will 
also  be  evident  that  such  schools  present  prob- 
lems in  connection  with  the  labor  market  as  well. 
In  certain  industries,  the  organization  of  labor 

64 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

has  succeeded  in  producing  certain  standards  of 
compensation,  the  further  maintenance  of  which 
appears  to  be  dependent  on  a  limitation  in  the 
supply  of  workers  offering  themselves.  Specific 
situations  will  doubtless  arise  in  which  vocational 
schools  may  operate,  if  improperly  managed,  to 
break  down  prevailing  rates  of  compensation. 
Here  again,  however,  the  larger  social  need 
must  control,  and  the  administrators  of  such 
schools  must  so  organize  their  efforts  as  not  to 
inflict  undue  hardship  on  existing  employment. 
The  controlling  social  need  must  be  the  supply 
of  opportunities  for  vocational  education  to  as 
many  boys  and  girls  as  possible,  in  the  convic- 
tion that  the  presence  in  society  of  a  very  large 
number  of  well-trained  workers  will  redound  to 
the  benefit  of  all  society.  Subject  to  this  con- 
trolling principle,  special  adjustment  must  be 
made,  wherever  possible,  to  prevent  hardship. 

The  Support  of  Vocational  Education 

Experience  already  demonstrates  that  voca- 
tional education  will  prove  to  be  expensive. 
Where  part-time  schemes  do  not  succeed,  the 
equipment  of  independent  schools  will  prove 
costly.  Under  any  circumstances,  the  teachers 
will  be  obliged  to  have  a  combination  of  practical 

65 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

and  theoretical  training,  which  will  make  it 
necessary  that  they  be  paid  more  than  skilled 
workers  in  the  fields  from  which  they  come. 
These  teachers,  again,  can  handle  effectively  only 
relatively  small  groups  of  students,  and  it  may 
be  expected,  therefore,  that  the  annual  per  capita 
cost  of  genuinely  vocational  education  will  range 
from  #75.00,  at  the  lowest,  to  several  hundred 
dollars,  as  a  maximum.  It  may  be  anticipated, 
of  course,  that  for  large  numbers  of  workers,  a 
course  less  than  four  years  in  length  will  be 
sufficient.  The  expenditure  for  these  lines  must 
be  looked  at  from  the  social  point  of  view,  and 
as  a  form  of  social  investment.  A  given  commu- 
nity may  well  expect  to  receive  back  far  more 
than  this  outlay  in  the  shape  of  the  increased 
productive  capacity  of  the  workers  turned  out. 

Owing  to  conditions  promoting  mobility  in 
American  labor,  it  has  become  customary  for 
workmen  to  move  easily  from  one  community  to 
another.  If  workmen  stayed  in  the  place  of  their 
birth  and  education,  a  given  community  could 
expect  to  find  its  wealth  increasing  proportion- 
ately, if  it  supported  vocational  schools,  but  there 
is  no  guarantee  that  the  workman  trained  in  one 
community  will  remain  there ;  consequently,  it 
becomes  desirable  and  just  that  the  larger  ad- 
66 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

ministrative  units  should  contribute  something 
to  this  form  of  education,  since  the  benefits  of 
it  spread  over  the  larger  area.  To  this  end,  it  is 
becoming  recognized  that  the  State,  as  a.  taxing 
unit,  should  contribute  something  —  if  not  fully 
one-half —  to  the  cost  of  maintenance  of  these 
vocational  schools.  In  fact,  it  may  be  asserted 
that  the  National  Government  itself^could  legiti- 
mately be  called  upon  to^aioTtnis  form  of  edu- 
cation, since  the  general  migratory  tendency  of 
laborers  carries  them  constantly  beyond  State 
bounds.  The  National  Government  already  con- 
tributes to  vocational  education  of  a  higher,  or 
semi-professional  level,  in  the  engineering  or 
agricultural  callings.  From  the  administrative 
point  of  view,  it  is  desirable  and  expedient  that 
it  should  contribute  to  work  still  farther  down 
the  line. 

Those  who  are  interested  in  the  expansion  of 
vocational  education  must  tend  constantly  to  in- 
terpret it  as  a  productive  and  justifiable  form  of 
social  investment.  It  must  be  pointed  out  that 
already  the  American  public  expends  upon  a 
number  of  relatively  unproductive  lines  of  activity 
vastly  greater  sums  than  are  expended  for  edu- 
cation. The  actual  cost  of  the  liquor  consump- 
tion of  the  American  people  is  probably  three  or 
67 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

four  times  as  great  as  that  of  education.  The 
outlay  for  tobacco  is  commonly  supposed  to  be 
about  equal  to  the  cost  of  all  forms  of  public  in- 
struction. Another  field  of  expenditure,  which 
can  hardly  be  described  as  being  as  socially  pro- 
ductive as  education,  is  advertising ;  yet  the  total 
outlay  on  it  is  in  excess  of  that  for  all  forms  of 
education. 

Owing  to  imperfect  systems  of  taxation,  the 
burden  of  supporting  either  liberal  or  vocational 
education  seems  often  to  be  an  especially  heavy 
one.  The  fault  is  to  be  found,  not  in  the  actual 
cost  of  such  education,  but  in  the  imperfect  dis- 
tribution of  its  burdens.  Communities  must  be 
made  to  realize  that  the  total  amount  of  social 
outlay  for  education  is  even  now  but  an  insig- 
nificant part  of  the  total  social  expenditure ;  and 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  that  outlay  is  probably 
one  of  the  most  effective  forms  of  expenditure 
yet  devised.  Constant  insistence  on  these  notions 
will,  in  the  course  of  time,  bring  about  reforms 
in  taxing  methods,  devices  for  the  reduction  of 
wasteful  expenditure,  and  a  fuller  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  expenditure  for  education,  liberal 
and  vocational. 


68 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

The  Teaching  Force 

It  is  by  this  time  fully  obvious  that  the 
problem  of  supplying  teachers  for  vocational 
schools  differs  largely  from  similar  problems  in 
other  departments  of  education.  For  many  years, 
in  Europe  and  America,  attempts  have  been 
made  to  recruit  the  teaching  force  in  vocational 
schools,  from  people  trained  along  academic  and 
pedagogic  lines.  In  nearly  all  cases,  this  attempt 
has  failed,  mainly  because  such  teachers  lacked 
concrete  and  practical  experience  with  industrial 
conditions.  However  well-intentioned,  they  were 
not  able  to  keep  themselves  in  touch  with  the 
actual  requirements  of  productive  industry.  It  is 
generally  agreed  to-day  that  a  successful  teacher 
in  a  vocational  field  must  be  primarily  equipped 
as  a  practical  workman.'  To  this  equipment  of 
habit,  skill,  and  knowledge,  it  is  highly  desirable 
that  he  should  add  as  much  pedagogic  ability  and 
general  culture  as  possible.  In  the  training  of 
such  teachers,  therefore,  it  seems  probable  that 
for  a  long  time  society  will  have  to  endeavor  to 
pick  from  the  field  of  young  workmen  and  others 
who  have  served  a  successful  apprenticeship 
those  who  manifest  some  teaching  ability,  or 
ambition  to  enter  this  field.  These  maybe  given 
69 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

a  short  course  of  training  in  theoretical  pedagogy 
and,  possibly,  some  beginnings  in  the  practice 
of  teaching.  It  is  already  obvious,  of  course,  that 
there  must  be  many  types  of  vocational  education 
and,  consequently,  there  must  be  many  sources 
of  practical  work  from  which  teachers  are  to  be 
drawn. 

Whether  it  will  prove  practicable  to  assemble 
skilled  young  workers  in  a  central  institution  for 
\  the  purpose  of  giving  them  their  pedagogic  train- 
Zing  is  not  now  apparent.  At  first,  it  may  prove 
^feasible  to  have  short  courses  or  institutes  in 
which  practically  trained  men  and  women   of 
some  teaching  aptitude  can  be  gathered  for  the 
purpose  of  learning   something   of  the   art   of 
teaching.  The  building  up  of  a  teaching  force 
for  the  vocational  schools  ought  not  to  prove  an 
insurmountable  problem  when  once  the  charac- 
ter of  the  field  is  recognized.  These  teaching 
positions  may  be  made  to  pay  somewhat  better 
than   the   positions   of   skilled  workmen   along 
commercial,  industrial,    and   agricultural   lines. 
iThe  permanency  of  the  position  and  the  agree- 
able character  of  the  work  should  prove  added 
attractions.  It  is  improbable  that  we  shall,  for  a 
long  time,  see  training  schools  that  will  endeavor 
to  comprehend  the  entire  range  of  training  for 
70 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

this  field,  including  the  stages  of  apprenticeship ; 
on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  expected,  as  voca- 
tional schools  develop  and  succeed,  that  in  the 
student  body  of  each,  there  will  appear  young 
workmen  with  teaching  capacity,  and  these  may 
gradually  be  directed  toward  preparation  for 
teaching  as  a  career.  At  bottom,  the  question 
of  supplying  teachers  is  one  of  sufficient  com- 
pensation ;  given  a  satisfactory  financial  basis,  it 
will  not  prove  at  all  impossible  to  find  many  in- 
telligent young  workmen  who  will  gladly  take 
up  this  work. 

The  Relation  of  Vocational  to  Cultural  Education 

Much  confusion  of  thought  exists  as  to  the 
relation  of  vocational  to  cultural  education.  This 
is  natural,  in  view  of  the  attempts  that  have  been 
made  to  carry  on  vocational  education  by  the 
same  administrative  machinery,  and  along  the 
same  pedagogic  lines  as  the  well-established 
forms  of  liberal  education,  but  it  is  necessary  to 
recognize  that  the  two  forms  are  largely  un- 
like as  regards  aims,  administrative  machinery, 
and  pedagogic  method  to  be  employed.  Both 
have  something  of  a  common  basis  in  certain 
studies  like  reading,  writing,  number,  and  ele- 
mentary drawing ;  even  in  the  case  of  these  stud- 
7i 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

ies,  however,  so  far  as  the  rank  and  file  of 
workers  are  concerned,  there  relatively  early  ap- 
pears the  possibility  of  differentiation  of  aim  ac- 
cording as  the  vocational  or  the  cultural  purpose 
is  to  control.  Certain  phases  of  liberal  education, 
like  history,  civics,  geography,  science,  and  mathe- 
matics, may  have  contributed  something  of  the 
knowledge  and  ideals  which  later  come  to  be  of 
vocational  significance,  but  these  must  be  looked 
upon  as  by-products,  and,  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, as  accidental  elements,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  strictly  vocational  training. 

It  was  formerly  supposed  that  any  study,  seri- 
ously pursued,  resulted  in  a  certain  amount  of 
mental  training  which  could  be  employed  in  any 
field,  related  or  unrelated  to  that  study.  Under 
the  influence  of  this  idea,  it  was  believed  that 
the  study  of  higher  mathematics  or  of  foreign 
language  resulted  in  a  development  of  certain 
intellectual  powers,  and  that  these  powers  could 
be  readily  applied  when  vocational  pursuits  were 
undertaken.  From  the  standpoint  of  modern  psy- 
chology, this  doctrine  has  been  much  discredited. 
It  is  probably  true  that  liberal  studies  pursued 
with  interest  do  result  in  some  powers  which 
may  have  vocational  application ;  it  is  much  more 
probable,  however,  that  the  vocational  success, 
72 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

which  has  so  often  attended  those  who  have  had 
the  advantages  of  higher  education,  has  been  due 
rather  to  native  ability  which  the  institutions  of 
higher  education  have  been  successful  in  select- 
ing and  putting  into  relief. 

It  is  true  that  liberal  education,  as  formerly 
carried  on,  did  suggest  means,  or  contribute  to 
preparation,  for  certain  callings  more  than  to 
others.  It  is  a  common  belief  that  persons  with 
secondary  or  college  education  turn  more  natu- 
rally to  the  clerical,  or  commercial,  than  to  the 
industrial  callings.  There  is  good  ground  for  be- 
lieving that  many  of  the  studies  designated  as 
liberal  find  their  strongest  justification  in  the 
elements  which  they  contribute  to  professional 
training.  From  this  point  of  view,  it  might  justi- 
fiably be  said  that  a  liberal  education  is  essen- 
tial to  certain  kinds  of  vocational  success,  but  a 
more  correct  interpretation  would  be  that  some 
of  the  so-called  liberal  studies  are  in  reality  vo- 
cational. 

But  any  discussion  of  this  subject  must  involve 
a  clear  recognition  of  the  fact  that  liberal  edu- 
cation primarily  has  to  do  with  art,  music,  liter- 
ature, foreign  language,  history,  geography, 
natural  science,  and  social  science,  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  individual  as  one  who  is  to  learn 
73 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

to  appreciate,  on  a  broad  scale,  the  world  in 
which  he  lives.  For  most  individuals,  these 
studies  have  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  voca- 
tional efficiency,  which  is  something  to  be  at- 
tained by  specialized  endeavor,  and  along  lines 
determined  by  its  needs.  All  attempts  to  make 
the  subjects  of  liberal  education  yield  vocational 
efficiency  are  destined  to  fail,  because  to  a  large 
extent,  such  effort  will  result  in  depriving  them 
of  their  true  significance  as  factors  in  a  liberal 
education.  Even  such  subjects  as  mathematics, 
science,  and  drawing,  when  pursued  in  the  gen- 
eral sense,  may  lend  themselves  only  slightly  to 
vocational  application,  especially  in  view  of  the 
modern  tendency  towards  specialized  production ; 
on  the  other  hand,  these  subjects  may  very  well 
be  pursued  for  vocational  purposes,  in  which 
case  the  choice  of  material  and  method  will  be 
controlled  mainly  by  the  ends  of  vocational  effi- 
ciency. 

It  is  clear,  however,  that  the  aims  of  liberal 
education  can  be  to  some  extent  realized  through 
the  measures  adopted  for  a  generous  vocational 
education.  This  result  maybe  achieved  in  several 
ways.  Vocational  pursuits,  by  drawing  upon  the 
instincts  of  construction  and  upon  creative  ten- 
dencies, may  develop  thinking  interests  and  mo 
74 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tives  in  related  studies.  In  practical  life,  we 
often  find  this  in  the  active  interest  which  is  de- 
veloped in  the  study  of  physics  by  one  who  has 
become  vocationally  interested  in  mechanics, 
electricity,  or  steam.  At  the  present  time,  many 
women  find  their  most  active  motive  for  the  study 
of  chemistry  in  the  necessities  suggested  by  in- 
vestigation and  practice  of  the  home-keeping 
arts.  It  is  well  known  that  youths  and  men  who 
have  made  some  beginnings  in  scientific  agricul- 
ture, pursue  a  wide  range  of  studies  and  reading 
in  their  endeavor  to  grasp  the  principles  under- 
lying that  subject.  Not  a  few  teachers  who  have 
become  devoted  to  their  work  find  in  their  pro- 
fessional interests  sufficient  motives  for  extensive 
studies  into  the  evolution  of  educational  prac- 
tices. Girls  who  are  studying  dressmaking  be- 
come interested  in  the  possibilities  of  color  com- 
binations. Economic  history  becomes  especially 
significant  to  the  person  who  has  had  some  con- 
tact with  the  commerce  of  the  present  time. 
These  and  many  more  possible  examples  suggest 
that  the  beginnings  in  vocational  study  may  in- 
spire interests  and  motives  which  carry  the 
student  far  over  into  the  field  of  liberal  education, 
with  a  degree  of  vital  appreciation,  which  could  - 
be  procured  in  no  other  way. 
75 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

Again,  it  frequently  happens  that  a  child  has 
lost  all  interest  in  the  more  abstract  studies  of 
the  school,  and,  for  him,  participation  in  active 
constructive  work  may  be  the  means  of  inspiring 
intellectual  activity  which,  in  turn,  becomes  dis- 
tinctly an  aspect  of  liberal  education.  Examples 
of  this  are  familiar  to  all  teachers  who  have  had 
to  do  with  vocational  education  in  trade  schools, 
reform  schools,  and  business  colleges. 

In  still  another  direction,  vocational  education 
may  contribute  largely  to  the  aims  of  liberal  edu- 
cation. It  has  been  previously  indicated  that  one 
large  factor  in  liberal  education  is  the  socializa- 
tion of  the  individual ;  that  is,  bringing  him  into 
sympathetic  and  perceiving  relations  with  the 
rest  of  the  social  life  about  him.  Civic  education 
has  this  as  its  chief  aim,  but  to  a  large  extent 
morality  and  civic  efficiency  rest  on  economic 
foundations,  and  for  many  persons,  economic  ac- 
tivities are  the  best  approach  to  the  insight  here 
suggested.  In  connection  with  productive  work, 
the  virtues  of  thrift,  honest  effort,  cooperation, 
and  the  like,  can  be  more  successfully  imparted. 
It  is  not  improbable  that,  for  a  great  many  boys 
and  girls,  particularly  those  not  endowed  with 
the  higher  idealism,  this,  under  the  right  teach- 
ing, may  be  made  the  most  effective  approach 
76 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

to  an  efficient  and  vital  education  in  civic  re- 
sponsibility. 

Liberal  and  vocational  education  are  not  identi- 
cal, and  have  only  certain  elements  in  common  ; 
they  aim  in  essentially  different  directions,  and 
their  valid  aims  can  be  realized  only  by  making 
allowance  for  this  difference.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  of  the  studies  which  contribute  to  liberal 
education  may  be  so  handled  as  to  give  a  basis, 
or  approach,  or  means  of  choice  to  subsequent 
vocational  education.  For  many  persons,  a  vital 
vocational  education,  resting  on  concrete  founda- 
tions and  making  due  allowance  for  expansion 
into  the  related  fields  of  science,  art,  history, 
economics,  and  civics,  may  become  an  exceed- 
ingly effective  means  of  liberalizing  the  minds  of 
several  types  of  boys  and  girls,  and  especially 
those  least  capable  of  abstract  thinking  or  social 
idealism. 

The  Types  of  Schools 

The  question  is  frequently  raised  as  to  the 
distinctions  among  various  types  of  schools  as 
now  found.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  in  this 
field  great  confusion  of  terminology  still  pre- 
vails. Among  the  terms  now  in  use  are  these : 
manual  training  school,  household  arts  school, 
77 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

technical  high  school,  mechanic  arts  high  school, 
industrial    high   school,   manual    training  high 
school,  industrial  school,  trade  school,  interme- 
diate industrial  school,  etc.   It  will  be  evident 
that  the  confusion  of  terminology  with  regard  to 
these  schools   rests  upon  a  more  fundamental 
confusion  as  to  processes,  methods,  and  aims. 
ManuaLtraining,  as  has  been  shown,  is  essen- 
tially part  of  the  scheme  of  liberal  education,  in 
spite  of  the  designs  of  some  who  were  instru- 
|  mental  in  introducing  it.   It  has  suffered  pecul- 
/  iarly  from   the  psychological  fallacy  of  formal 
/  discipline.  It  was  long  ago  seen  that  the  practice 
of  "many  crafts  involved,  or  required,  extensive 
motor  (mainly  hand)  training.  Therefore,  said  the 
naifve  theorist  of  the  past,  let  us  train  the  hand. 
But  there  are  scores  of  kinds  of  hand-training, 
and  the  attainment  of  one  kind  of  dexterity  does 
not  guarantee  another,  else  would  baseball  and 
bicycle-riding  be  most  useful  forms  of  manual 
j  training.  To-day  we  still  call  a  variety  of  concrete 
work  in  the  grades  "  manual  training,"  but  in 
I  some  quarters,  the  term  "  industrial  training,"  or 
'  "  industrial  arts,"  is  used  by  preference. 

Under  the  head  of  industrial  arts  should  be  in- 
cluded those  studies  which,  employing  manual 
and  constructive,  or  other  methods,  are  aimed 
78 


/ 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

primarily  to  give  appreciation,  taste,  and  insight,  | 
but  without  being  designed  to  secure  proficiency  \ 
in  vocation.    A  corresponding  range  of  liberal  \ 
studies  would  be  the  household  arts,  and  another,     ) 
the  agricultural  arts.  It  is  not  impossible,  indeed, 
that  a  group  of  commercial  studies,  as  elements 
in  liberal  education,  could  be  differentiated  in  the 
same  way. 

It  was  previously  noted  that  the  manual  train- 
ing, technical,  or  mechanic  arts  high  schools  origi- 
nally had  an  implicit  vocational  purpose,  which 
has  largely  failed  of  realization.    With  but  few 
exceptions,  these  schools  are  essentially  con- 
trolled at  the  present  time  by  the  aims  of  liberal 
education  ;  in  some  cases,  more  of  manual  train- 
ing is  given,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  in  time 
some  of  these  schools  may  develop  into  true  vo- 
cational schools.    In  few  instances,  they  aim  to  I 
secure  a  considerable  degree  of  proficiency  in  the  ' 
technical,  as  opposed  to  the  practical  studies 
attending  certain  vocations;  for  example,  they\ 
give  the  training  in  mathematics,  mechanics,  and/ 
drawing,  which  might,  when  coupled  with  prac-  } 
tical  proficiency,  produce  a  high-grade  mechanic./ 
Owing,  however,  to  their  inversion  of  the  peda- 
gogic order  of  approach  to  these  studies,  which 
is  deemed  essential  to  vocational  efficiency,  it  is 
79 


THE  PROBLEM  OF 

a  question  whether  they  can  ever  be  called,  in  the 
true  sense,  vocational  schools.  As  far  as  they  are 
vocational,  they  are  so  onlyjior  a  group  of  occu- 
pations which,  like  architecture  and  engineering, 
still  involve  largely  the  capacity  for  abstract 
thinking  and  organization. 

Trade  schools,  in  large  variety,  already  exist 
in  the  United  States,  usually  under  philanthropic 
or  private  direction.  Commonly,  these  have  well- 
defined,  practical  aims,  and,  owing  to  their  cir- 
cumstances, their  work  commonly  functions  as 
designed.  In  a  considerable  number  of  instances, 
trade  schools,  like  the  apprenticeship  system 
which  they  are  designed  to  replace  in  whole  or  in 
part,  receive  the  students  at  approximately  the 
age  of  sixteen,  and  give  them  from  six  months 
to  four  years  of  intensive  practical  and  technical 
training,  as  preparatory  to  practical  industries. 

Intermediate  industrial  schools  are  those  de- 
signed to  take  children  at  or  near  fourteen,  and 
to  give  them  the  beginnings  of  vocational  train- 
ing for  groups  of  related  occupations,  or  for  spe- 
cialties. They  do  not  assume  to  give  trade  train- 
ing, but  a  practical  preparation  therefor. 

A  new  form  of  apprenticeship  has  In  recent 
years  made  extensive  progress  in  American  in- 
dustry. In  this,  the  apprentices  are  put  in  charge 
8p 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

of  teachers  who  supervise  their  training  and  guar- 
antee such  a  conduct  of  their  practical  work  and 
theoretical  studies  as  will  produce  wide  vocational 
efficiency.  The  factory  or  workshop  becomes  the 
school,  time  is  set  apart  for  theoretical  studies, 
and  the  student  is  engaged  mainly  in  productive 
work.  This  form  of  vocational  education  may  be 
adapted  to  certain  industries,  but  it  is  not  certain 
that  it  will  be  able  to  assume  the  disinterested 
attitude  of  the  publicly  controlled  forms. 

Conclusion  ■ 

The  demand  for  vocational  education  under 
school  conditions  is  a  widespread  one,  and  is 
rooted  in  the  social  and  economic  changes  of  the 
age.  Rightly  organized,  vocational  education  will 
prove  a  profitable  investment  for  society.  The 
pedagogy  of  this  education  will  differ  widely  from 
that  evolved  for  liberal  education,  and  especially 
in  respect  to  making  practice,  or  participation  in 
productive  work,  a  fundamental  element.  Vo- 
cational education  must  be  so  conducted  as  to 
contribute  to  the  making  of  the  citizen,  as  well 
as  the  worker.  In  the  course  of  the  development 
of  a  progressive  social  economy,  we  may  expect 
it  to  be  made  obligatory  upon  every  individual 
to  acquire  a  certain  amount  of  vocational  educa- 
81 


VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

tion,  just  as  the  present  tendency  of  legislation 
is  to  prevent  any  one  from  remaining  illiterate. 
Vocational  education  is  not  in  conflict  with  liberal 
education,  but  is  a  supplemental  form,  and  may 
be  expected  to  reinforce  it. 


OUTLINE 

I.    SOME  GENERAL  DISTINCTIONS 

1.  The  variety  of  educational  agencies I 

2.  Variations  in  the  purposive  character  of  education     2 

3.  Variations  of  educational  aims •    •    3 

II.    WHAT  IS  LIBERAL  EDUCATION? 

1.  Liberal  education  is  for  culture  and  civic  capacity.    4 

2.  Apparent  opposition  between  liberal  and  practical 

training 6 

III.    WHAT  IS  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION? 

1.  Definition 8 

2.  Various  agencies  contributing  to  it 10 

3.  Partial  development  in  schools 10 

IV.    MODERN   SOCIAL  NEED  OF  VOCATIONAL 
EDUCATION 

1.  The  lessening  influence  of  other  agencies     .    .    .13 

2.  The  application  of  science 15 

V.  SHOULD  THE  STATE  SUPPORT  VOCA- 

TIONAL EDUCATION? 

1.  Development  of  liberal  education  under  schools     .  18 

2.  The  increasing  participation  of  the  State  .    .    .    .21 

VI.  TYPES  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

1.  Five  main  types 22 

2.  Stages  within  these  types 24 

83 


OUTLINE 

VII.    PEDAGOGICAL  DIVISIONS  OF  VOCA- 
TIONAL EDUCATION 

1.  Three  main  stages  —  the  concrete,  the  technical, 

and  the  general 26 

2.  Illustrations 29 

VIII.  THE  ORDER  AND  RELATION  OF  THE 
PEDAGOGIC  STAGES  IN  VOCATIONAL 

EDUCATION     • 

1.  The  concrete  character  of  home  and  apprenticeship 

teaching 32 

2.  The  tendency  of  the  school  to  teach  abstract  studies  32 

3.  The  theoretical  as  growing  out  of  the  concrete 

studies 34 

IX.  COOPERATION  OF  AGENCIES  IN  VOCA- 

TIONAL EDUCATION 

1.  Examples  of  part  time  teaching 38 

2.  New  system  of  schools  may  be  needed 40 

X.  THE   RELATION   OF    VOCATIONAL  EDUCA- 

TION TO  MANUAL  TRAINING 

1.  Manual  training  as  liberal  education ;  as  modified 

toward  vocational  ends ;  as  combining  liberal  and 
vocational  ends 42 

2.  Manual  training  and  vocational  education  must  be 

kept  apart 46 

XI.  PROBLEMS    OF    INTERMEDIATE    OR  IN- 
TRODUCTORY VOCATIONAL  EDUCATION 

1.  The  youth  from  fourteen  to  sixteen 47 

2.  The  effects  of  the  specialization  of  industry  ...  49 

84 


OUTLINE 

XII.    THE  PROBLEM  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY 

1.  The  two  kinds  of  career  usually  open  to  each  woman  51 

2.  Education  for  wage-earning  and   for   home-mak- 

ing      ...  52 

XIII.    THE  PROBLEMS  OF  AGRICULTURAL 
EDUCATION 

1.  Improvements 54 

2.  Types  available 55 

XIV.    THE  PROBLEMS  OF  ADMINISTRATION 

1.  The  demands  for  special  administration    ....  57 

2.  Suggested  adjustments 59 

XV.    MISCELLANEOUS  PROBLEMS 

1.  A  valuable  product  from  work 61 

2.  Varieties  of  courses 62 

3.  The  making  of  text-books 64 

4.  Regulation  of  labor  supply 64 

XVI.  THE  SUPPORT  OF  VOCATIONAL  EDU- 
CATION 

1.  Its  cost 65 

2.  The  necessity  of  state  aid 66 

3.  Its  justification  as  a  social  investment 67 

XVII.    THE  TEACHING  FORCE 

1.  The  necessity  of  practical  experience 69 

2.  Special  professional  training 70 

XVIII.    THE  RELATION  OF  VOCATIONAL  TO 
CULTURAL  EDUCATION 

1.  Their  common  elemental  ideas  of  mental  training  .  71 

2.  Possibilities  of  combining  the  two  forms  ....  74 

85 


OUTLINE 

XIX.    TYPES  OF  SCHOOLS 

1.  Varieties  of  types 77 

2.  Criticisms  and  definitions 79 

XX.    CONCLUSION 

The  fundamental  character  of  vocational  education   81 


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